LIBRARY 

OF  THB 

University  of  California. 


Class 


) 


Judaism  and  Its  History 


IN  TWO  PARTS 


By 

Dr.  Abraham  Geiger 

Rabbi  of  the  Israelite  Congregation  at  Frankfort  on  the  Main.. 


Translated  from  the  German 
By 

Charles  Newburgh 


The  Bloch  Publishing  Co. 

New  York 


^. 


^ 


/ 

y^ 


Entered  according  to  Act  of  Congress  In  the  year  1911 

By  CHARLES  NEWBURGH 

in  the  office  of  the  Librarian  of  Congress,  at  Washington,  D.  C. 


Preface  to  the  First  Edition. 

The  following  pages  owe  their  origin  to  a  Course  of 
Lectures  before  a  limited  audience  of  educated  persons.  As 
they  met  with  friends  among  those,  so  they  seek  them  now 
among  an  educated  public  at  large. 

Ought  subjects  of  such  serious,  profound  importance  as 
those  considered  in  these  pages  to  venture  into  the  vast 
market  of  life,  if  their  treatment  claims  to  present  new  results 
gained  from  new  points  of  view?  It  can  not  be  contested 
that  the  results  which  science  has  apparently  established  with 
the  aid  of  all  the  means  at  her  command,  should  be  made  the 
property  of  all  educated  people.  But  as  long  as  such  proof 
has  not  been  furnished  in  full,  would  it  not  be  preposterous 
to  drag  them  before  the  public  at  large?  I  have  seriously 
considered  these  doubts.  For  the  views  expressed  herein 
differ  in  important  points  from  those  generally  prevailing,  and 
I  have  thus  far  not  had  the  opportunity  to  substantiate  all 
of  them  so  fully  as  to  be  able  to  refer  to  works  previously 
published.  I  can  only  refer  to  my  book,  "The  Original  Text 
and  Versions  of  the  Bible,"  to  my  essay,  "Sadducees  and 
Pharisees,"  and  a  few  other  shorter  articles  published  in  my 
"  Jewish  Review  for  Science  and  Life  "  and  in  other  periodicals. 
Notwithstanding  those  doubts,  I  could  not  resist  the  tempta- 
tion presented  by  a  finished  manuscript.  Considering  that 
life  is  short  and  time  is  fleeting,  I  think  myself  to  have  the 
permission  of  saying  with  the  wise  Hillel,  "Praise  to  God, 
day  by  day."  It  is  not  always  advisable  to  defer  and  repress 
that  which  we  deem  useful  until,  perchance,  it  might  become 
more  useful.  It  shall  remain  the  literary  task  of  my  life  to 
elaborate,  in  closer  connection  and  more  exhaustively,  the 
historical  views  presented  in  these  pages.  In  the  mean  time  I 
trust  that  they  may  in  their  present  form  disclose  the  back- 
ground, afford  an  insight  into  the  serious  studies  upon  which 
they  are  based,  and  make  them  sufficiently  clear  for  those 
acquainted  with  the  subject-matter  and  the  original  sources. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  very  importance  of  the  questions 


228526 


'  4/' : '-  •'   '  •  •  • '  -' ' '  Judaism  and  Its  History 

treated  upon,  as  they  require  on  the  one  side  a  thorough  and 
cautious  consideration,  may  on  the  other  side  even  involve 
the  demand  not  to  withhold  too  long  our  own  views  gained 
by  honest  research.  The  questions  are,  after  all,  on  every 
lip,  and  the  man  can  least  be  exempted  from  answering  them 
of  whose  official  and  literary  position  such  answers  may  pre- 
eminently be  expected  and  demanded.  Historical  facts  must 
be  explained  for  everyone,  because  they  are  the  sources 
whence  convictions,  rules  for  belief  and  practice  are  derived. 
How  then  under  such  circumstances,  and  especially  in  our 
time,  characterized  by  mental  and  spiritual  commotion,  could 
the  impulse  to  a  publication  of  one's  own  attempted  solution 
be  repressed?  May,  then,  my  views  also  mingle  with  the 
crowd  of  diverging  opinions  and  testify  for  themselves. 

To  provide  them  with  a  passport  in  the  form  of  extensive 
proofs  and  citations  would  be  entirely  out  of  place  in  a 
preface.  Yet  one  thought  I  desire  to  recommend  to  the  con- 
sideration of  my  readers.  Just  because  the  events  treated 
upon  herein  have  exercised  a  lasting  influence,  views  have 
been  formed  of  them  which  are  regarded  as  completely 
settled,  so  that  any  deviation  from  them  appears  as  highly 
extraordinary.  Most  men  find  it  difficult  to  transpose  them- 
selves, regardless  of  the  later  conceptions,  into  the  very  time 
of  the  events  and  tendencies  then  prevailing,  and  to  consider 
with  open  eyes  that  which  then  actually  existed,  and  not  that 
which  it  became  in  the  views  of  a  later  period.  Men  are  so 
accustomed  to  identify  the  present  mode  of  thinking,  which 
has  been  developed  in  the  course  of  two  thousand  years,  with 
that  then  existing;  words  and  terms  which  at  the  time  when 
first  used,  had  quite  a  different  meaning,  are  now  taken  in  a 
sense  which  was  gradually  attributed  to  them  and  is  now 
prevailing.  Hence,  when  we  read  the  ancient  writings 
containing  those  expressions,  according  to  the  modern  use 
of  language,  we  must  necessarily  arrive  at  gross  miscon- 
ceptions; nevertheless,  resistance  is  made,  whenever  the 
original  meaning  is  demonstrated  and  the  whole  mode  of 
thinking  at  that  time  elucidated  accordingly.  The  terms 
Pharisees^  this  worlds  the  world  to  comet  ihe  kingdom  of  God^ 


Preface  to  the  First  Edition  5 

and  the  like,  belong,  according  to  my  settled  conviction,  to 
that  class  of  words  whose  meanings  have  undergone  an 
important  change.  I  appeal  therefore,  to  impartial  exami- 
nation, in  order  that  it  may  gain  the  strength  to  wean  itself 
from  traditional  prejudices  and  acquire  the  insight  to  view 
properly  into  historical  events  long  past.  If  it  be  conceded 
that  two  thousand  years  have  not  vanished  away  without 
leaving  their  traces  in  the  entire  process  of  thought  of  man- 
kind, it  is  absurd  to  allege  that  ideas  and  words  which  through- 
out such  a  period  liave  exercised  a  decisive  influence  upon 
thought  and  practice,  had  no  other  meaning  in  former  times 
and  were  not  changed  as  to  their  significance  with  the  change 
of  external  conditions  and  sentiments.  Yet,  if  we  desire  to 
comprehend  Antiquity,  we  must  understand  its  mode  of 
thought  and  speech,  and  not  measure  it  by  our  own  standard. 
How  far  my  views  will  meet  with  approval,  time  naturally 
will  show ;  I  am  prepared  for  opposition  from  some  quarters. 
Whenever  it  shall  be  presented  to  me  with  quiet  and  soberness, 
I  shall  examine  it  with  all  candor  and  wilHngly  confess  all 
errors  proven;  but  I  shall  also  persist  in  the  truth  of  my 
conviction  and,  if  need  be,  defend  it  whenever  I  regard  it  as 
well  founded.  Irritation  can  not  affect  me.  Through  labors 
of  many  years  in  the  domain  of  the  life  and  science  of  Judaism 
I  have  acquired  the  experience  that  opposing  scorn  to  many 
an  unaccustomed  expression  could  not  prevent  its  extensive 
general  recognition  at  a  later  time.  If  I  have  also  entered 
the  domain  of  Christianity  as  far  as  the  subject  of  these 
lectures  required  it,  and  have  unhesitatingly  presented  con- 
victions which  may  be  now  and  then  in  sharp  conflict  with 
those  ordinarily  current,  every  fair-minded  thinker  will  soon 
recognize  that  I  have  not  done  so  wantonly  nor  from  insidious 
hostility,  but  because  I  was  forced  into  it  by  the  necessity 
for  authentification  of  my  own  conviction,  while  laboring  in 
the  cultivation  of  my  own  soil.  It  is  high  time  that  Jews 
should  openly  declare  how  they  understand  events  from  the 
very  consideration  of  which  comes  the  difference  of  the  two 
religions.  If  free  expression  of  opinion  is  both  a  right  that 
must  not  be  denied,  and  a  duty  that  must  not  be  neglected, 


6  Judaism  and  Its  History 

an  opponent  should  even  be  glad  when  contradiction  presents 
an  open  front,  so  that  he  may  know  whither  to  direct  his 
mental  weapons  during  the  contest,  and  is  not  compelled  to 
grope  in  uncertain  darkness  in  warding  off  hidden  attack  from 
the  ambush  of  silence.  With  zealots  who  regard  every 
contradiction  as  blasphemy,  every  view  different  from  their 
own  as  damnable,  and  who  would  therefore  close  its  mouth ; 
who  love  to  strengthen  the  weakness  of  their  arguments  by 
the  violence  of  their  proceeding — with  such  zealots,  considera- 
tions like  those  mentioned  will  have  no  weight;  with  calmness, 
I  look  forward  to  condemnation  by  them.  And  for  their  use, 
I  say:  I  alone  and  exclusively  bear  the  responsibility  of  all  I 
have  said  in  these  lectures.  How  many  or  how  few  of  my 
co-religionists  share  my  views,  I  do  not  know.  Hence,  I  make 
exclusive  claim  to  the  entire  honor  of  being  attacked.  My 
words  must  not  afford  a  pretext  for  an  accusation  against  Jews 
and  Judaism.  But  should  that,  nevertheless,  be  done  under  the 
hypocritical  pretence  of  piety,  a  new,  sad  example  would  be 
shown  of  the  value  placed  in  certain  circles — I  will  not  say 
upon  the  vaunted  word  of  love,  but  in  general — upon  justice 
and  fairness. 

If  I  have  here  added  a  few  words  to  what  I  have  declared 
in  the  lectures,  I  owe  yet  an  explanation  for  all  omissions. 
Originally  it  had  not  been  my  intention  to  give  such  scanty 
review,  as  is  contained  \ii  the  twelfth  lecture,  to  the  long 
period  from  the  destruction  of  the  Second  Temple  to  the 
present  time.  The  narrow  limit  of  time  only,  and  the  num- 
bers of  the  lectures  ultimately  made  that  brevity  a  necessity. 
But  I  trust  that  I  shall  meet  no  serious  blame  on  that  account. 
The  earlier  period  remains  the  foundation  and  could  not  yield 
to  a  shorter  consideration  than  has  been  given  to  it.  For  the 
present,  the  survey  of  that  later  period  may  be  regarded  as 
a  preliminary  account  of  the  transition  to  the  present  time. 
To  be  able  to  present  this  period  also  according  to  its  funda- 
mental ideas  and  decisive  events  in  a  similar  manner,  in  a 
new  course  of  lectures,  is  a  hope  to  the  realization  of  which  I 
look  forward  with  delight. 

May  these  leaves,  then,  borne  by  favorable  breezes,  reach 
the  hands  of  appreciative  readers.  Geiger. 

Frankfort  on  the  Main,  March  ii,  1864. 


Preface  to  the  Second  Edition. 

Faster  than  I  had  expected,  the  demand  for  a  second 
sdition  has  appeared.  The  fact  is  to  me  a  glad  guaranty 
that  the  book  has  not  lacked  notice  in  wider  circles  of  educated 
persons,  and  probably  found  attention  and  approval,  too.  If 
the  organs  of  criticism  have  so  far  kept  silent  about  it,  I  am 
far  from  interpreting  their  silence  as  intentional  in  a  demon- 
strative sense,  neither  does  that  give  me  reason  to  assume 
that  the  book  made  no  impression.  Besides  a  few  short 
notices,  three  notable  papers  have  published  lengthy  discus- 
sions last  year;  viz..  Die  Grenzboten  (No.  41),  Die  Augs- 
burger  Allgemeine  Zeitung  (Supplement  No.  321),  and 
Steinschneider's  Hebrew  Bibliography  (No.  42).  Their 
verdict  was  not  an  agreement  in  all  parts  with  the  views  of 
the  author,  yet  at  any  rate  such  a  one  as  is  declared  upon 
something  worth  noticing.  The  reviewers  differed  widely 
among  themselves,  so  that  their  verdicts  often  mutually  cancel 
each  other  in  surprising  manner.  It  appeared  to  one  of  them 
that  my  remarks  on  Renan  and  Strauss  touched  them  but 
very  little,  while  the  other  one  found  that  I  had  thrown 
strong  light  upon  their  central  points.  If  this  one  thought 
proper  to  designate  my  review  of  some  sayings  of  Jesus  as 
subtle,  the  third  was  of  the  opinion  that  just  that  view  would 
meet  with  most  approval.  The  last  one  again  emphasized 
the  doubt  expressed  by  myself,  whether  views  ought  to  be 
offered  in  popular  presentation  to  the  public  at  large  before 
being  scientifically  authenticated  by  all  parties ;  and  this  with 
a  certain  amount  of  reproachful  aside.  In  contradiction  to 
that,  the  first  one  declares  that  whoever  knows  my  other 
scientific  labors,  would  find  nothing  new  in  the  book.  The 
reviewer  of  the  Allgemeine  Zeitung  seems  to  enjoy,  relative 
to  that  point,  a  naive  ignorance  which  behaves  in  the  manner 
of  self -admiration  or  arrogance,  belonging  to  that  mental 
plane. 


8  Judaism  and  Its  History 

Considering  those  contradictions  in  which  the  preliminary 
representatives  of  public  opinion  are  moving,  and  considering 
the  mere  indicatory  manner  by  which,  notwithstanding 
greater  detail,  they  rather  touch  the  results,  without  entering 
deeper  into  examination  of  those  and  the  investigations 
leading  to  them,  I  have  no  cause  for  making  essential  changes 
in  the  book.  From  the  surprise  expressed  by  the  Christian 
reviewers  at  my  giving  to  Judaism  both  in  Antiquity  and  in 
relation  to  Christianity,  continuous  justification  of  existence 
as  a  religious  force  and  a  future  and  a  mission  for  the  future 
— from  that  surprise  they  will  gradually  recover.  To  be 
shaken  out  of  a  prejudice  in  which  one  has  been  comfortably 
rocked,  is  inconvenient.  But  that  can  not  induce  me  to 
cease  from  designating  the  prejudice,  spread  ever  so  far,  as 
prejudice,  and  I  feel  neither  desire  nor  need  of  working  over 
a  book  which  has  proceeded  out  of  the  author's  inmost  mental 
and  spiritual  life,  as  long  as  my  presentation  has  not  been 
proven  erroneous.  I  have  therefore  limited  myself  in  this 
edition  to  smoothing  occasional  crudities  in  expression.  I  can 
now  point  more  definitely  to  a  supplement,  because  a  course 
of  lectures  which  I  am  delivering  this  winter  is  continuing 
the  consideration  of  the  history  into  the  Middle  Ages  and 
will  be  published  later. 

Meanwhile,  may  the  book  begin  its  journey  for  the  second 
time,  and  gain  new  friends  in  addition  to  the  old  ones. 

Geiger. 

Frankfort  on  the  Main,  January  15 1 186$ » 


Contents. 

Page 

Preface  to  the  First  Edition 3 

Preface  to  the  Second  Edition 7 

First  Lecture :     On  the  Nature  of  Religion 13 

Second  Lecture:     Religion  in  Antiquity  and  Religion  in 

Judaism 24 

Third  Lecture:    Revelation 39 

Fourth  Lecture:  Nationality,  Slavery,  Woman's  Position  49 

Fifth  Lecture:     Sacrificial  Service  and  Priesthood, 

Divided  Nationality 61 

Sixth  Lecture:    Exile  and  Return,  Tradition 77 

Seventh  Lecture:     Hellenism,  Sadducees  and  Pharisees. .  90 

Eighth  Lecture :    Sadducees  and  Pharisees,  The  World  to 

Come,  Hillel 106 

Ninth  Lecture:     Parties  and  Sects,  Origin  of  Christianity  122 

Tenth  Lecture:     Evolution  of  Christianity 137 

Eleventh  Lecture :  Christianity  as  an  Ecclesiastical  World 

Power.     The  Destruction  of  Jewish  Nationality 152 

Twelfth  Lecture:     In  the  Dispersion 163 

Appendix:    A  Glance  at  the  Latest  Works  on  the  Life  of 

Jesus 179 


First  Part 

Closing  with  the  Destruction  of  the  Second  Temple 

In  Twelve  Lectures,  with  an  Addition 

"Renan  and  Strauss" 


Judaism  and  Its  History. 

L 

On  the  Nature  of  Religion, 

If  I  ask  your  attention  for  a  series  of  Lectures  on  Judaism, 
its  essence,  formation,  development,  its  relation  to  similar 
appearances  in  history,  on  the  mission  which  it  undertook  to 
fulfill  and  the  manner  in  which  it  has  fulfilled  it,  on  the  mission 
which  still  remains  to  it,  both  for  the  present  and  a  long 
future — the  subject,  presenting  a  grand  world-historic  phe- 
nomenon, may  well  demand  your  sympathy.  A  grand, 
world-historic  phenomenon — not  conveying  the  idea  that 
Judaism,  like  many  other  historic  phenomena,  entered  upon 
the  world's  stage  for  a  certain  time,  and  during  that  time 
exerted  great  influence,  but  as  something  finite,  disappeared 
again  and  has  become  merely  a  subject  for  historical  con- 
sideration. No,  we  may  call  it  a  world-historic  phenomenon 
as  an  institution  reaching  back  into  that  period  whence 
historical  knowledge  began  for  the  world,  having  not  only 
existed  for  thousands  of  years  and  still  existing,  but  because 
passed,  as  it  were,  as  an  immortal  traveler  through  history, 
continuously  accompanying  history  and  co-operating  with 
history  from  its  very  beginning  to  this  day.  A  world-historic 
phenomenon,  because  it  had  given  birth  to  kindred  phenomena, 
Christianity  and  Islam,  and  projected  them  into  history  as 
grand  energies  which  exerted  their  transforming,  vivifying 
effect  upon  great  multitudes,  ruled  the  whole  tendency  of 
their  mind  and  affected  the  entire  development  of  the  con- 
ditions and  of  Judaism  too,  through  them.     And  notwith- 


14  Judaism  and  Its  History 

standing  Judaism  presents  such  a  world-historic  phenomenon 
— may  claim  such  great  importance — notwithstanding,  or 
perhaps  on  that  very  account,  the  opinions  expressed  con- 
cerning it  are  most  conflicting ;  the  importance  of  Judaism  is 
denied  out  and  out,  or  it  is  asserted  that  it  has  lost  all 
importance  a  long  time  ago,  or  at  least  for  our  time. 

Judaism,  such  is  the  first  assertion,  is  a  Religion ^  is  one 
of  the  various  forms  in  which  religion  presents  itself  in  the 
life  of  man,  inhistory;but  religion  itself  is  something  beyond 
which  we  have  progressed.  Obscure,  blind  belief,  hypotheses 
that  can  not  be  proven  and  should  not  be  proven,  which  the 
human  mind  can  not  master,  but  which  take  possession  of  it 
and  subjugate  it — such  conceptions  have  been  relegated  to 
the  rear,  long  ago.  Such  ideas  may  have  been  very  appro- 
priate for  a  time  when  mankind  was  yet  in  its  parliest  infancy, 
groping  its  way  in  attempts  to  understand  its  environment, 
while  the  premises  were  lacking  by  which  it  might  have 
arrived  at  knowledge.  But  we  are  the  knowing  ones,  we 
have  already  reached  such  an  eminence  as  affords  us  the 
means  to  pronounce  the  most  decided  judgment  so  that  we 
are  no  longer  fit  subjects  for  blind  belief  and  submission. 
But  granted  even  that  religion  may  still  claim  in  our  time 
some  authority,  that  it  embraces  higher  truths  which  man 
evolves  from  his  own  mind,  higher  truths  concerning  God, 
the  human  soul,  freedom  of  will,  immortality,  virtue,  etc., 
and  that  those  truths,  arranged  in  compact  order  may  be 
designated  as  a  System  of  Religion;  what  validity  can  be 
adjudged  to  the  claim  pre-eminently  asserted  by  Judaism  and 
after  its  manner  also  by  other  religions,  the  claim  to  Revelation^ 
through  the  medium  of  which  those  truths  have  reached  the 
mind  without  being  produced  by  it;  the  claim  that  those 
truths  made  their  appearance  within  mankind  in  an  extra- 
ordinary manner  and  have  thus  been  handed  down  without 
being  reproduced  anew  by  each  and  every  generation.  We 
have  conquered  for  ourselves  the  autonomy  of  the  mind ;  all 
claims  raised  against  it,  such  as  Judaism  raises,  are  unjustified, 
and  still  more  so  when  the  turbid  admixture  of  tradition  is 
added  to  be  also  received  as  a  truth.     Or  does  Judaism 


On  the  Nature  of  Religion  15 

perchance  repudiate  revelation  and  tradition?  Does  it  want 
to  be  satisfied  with  the  glory  of  having  first  proclaimed  those 
sublime  truths  that  have  become  common  property  of 
mankind — that  it  was  the  first  to  clearly  enunciate  ideas 
which  are  destined  for  all  mankind  and  have  completely 
taken  possession  of  it?  Be  it  so!  Let  it  rejoice  in  that 
glory!  But  so  runs  the  further  assertion,  even  this  glory  can 
not  be  granted  to  it  undiminished.  The  truths,  as  enunciated 
by  Judaism,  are  imperfect;  other,  later  religions  have  given 
them  proper  profundity  and  made  them  perfectly  clear,  on 
one  side  filling  all  gaps  in  magnificent  manner,  and  on  the 
other  side,  removing  all  superfluous  matter  and  correcting  all 
errors.  Accordingly,  Judaism  is  antiquated^  is  a  ruin  which 
has  been  preserved  for  a  small  circle,  but  which  is  no  longer 
a  determinative  energy,  its  spiritual  life  became  stunted  and 
has  fallen  to  the  rear,  while  other  religions  have  gone  forward 
and  extended  their  power  over  the  world.  Judaism  remained 
within  a  small  circle  for  which,  it  is  still  further  asserted,  it 
may  perhaps  still  have  had  some  importance  in  a  period 
likewise  passed  away  during  the  Middle  Ages;  for  those 
professing  it,  it  was  a  medium  of  spiritual  and  moral  life. 
At  a  time  when  barriers  of  separation  were  the  rule  and 
fashion,  when  every  small  group  existed  as  a  close  corporation 
and  the  members  of  each  one  of  those  had  their  growth  and 
development  only  within  such  narrow  confines,  Judaism  also 
had  its  authoritative  and  beneficent  influence.  But  now  we, 
especially  those  who  think  and  have  attained  to  a  higher 
plane  of  culture,  have  progressed  far  beyond  that  point. 
Mankind  has  become  a  unit;  mental  and  spiritual  life,  thought, 
and  feeling,  though  manifesting  themselves  in  many  forms, 
are  nevertheless  one  and  the  same  in  essence,  all  mental, 
treasures  have  become  a  common  inheritance  of  humanity; 
the  individual  is  satisfied  with  being  a  man.  Those  occupy- 
ing a  higher  point  of  view  among  all  parties  and  associations 
constitute  a  unit;  Judaism  has  lost  its  importance  for  the 
present  age  for  those  who  stand  on  the  summit  of  our  time. 

Those   are    powerful    and    weighty   objections.     Let    us 
approach  them.    The  thinking  man  must  unswervingly  face 


16  Judaism  and  Its  History 

all  doubts,  must  not  cowardly  hide  himself  before  them,  and 
even  when  such  doubts  are  presented  in  the  form  of  assertions, 
he  must  not  at  once  despair  and  surrender  to  them. 

We  are  the  knowing  ones.  This  assertion  is  put  forward 
with  proud  consciousness  by  our  age  in  opposition  to  a  sage 
of  whom  it  is  said  that  he  had  brought  wisdom  from  heaven 
to  earth  by  announcing  that  the  highest  degree  of  knowledge 
consisted  in  knowing  that  we  know  nothing.  During  the  two 
thousand  years  since  that  saying  was  given  to  the  world, 
we  have  made  immense  progress,  and  results  of  which  there 
was  then  not  the  slightest  presentiment  are  now  either 
common  property  of  all,  or  at  least  of  those  who  more  seriously 
devote  themselves  to  research.  Natural  science  has  made 
giant  strides.  It  now  knows  how  to  dissolve  substances 
which  were  formerly  considered  indissoluble.  It  under- 
stands how  to  follow  up  the  forces  which  bind  and  dissolve; 
it  knows  how  to  come  at  the  volatile  and  evasive  elements, 
how  to  fathom  their  laws  deeper  and  deeper  and  reduce  them 
to  higher  laws.  How  far  it  may  progress,  who  can  foresee? 
What  depths  it  may  yet  penetrate,  who  can  foretell?  It  has 
watched  the  secret  ways  in  which  growth  and  decay  proceed, 
and  has  arranged  them  in  a  system  of  rules  and  laws.  And 
yet,  however  farther  and  farther  it  may  penetrate,  for  we 
can  put  no  limits  to  its  progress,  will  it  not  meet  individual 
matters  which  can  not  be  dissolved?  Will  it  not  ultimately 
come  up  with  original  substance  that  will  ever  remain  original 
substance?  With  an  original  energy  that  will  ever  remain 
intangible  and  inexplicable?  Will  it  not  everlastingly  be 
compelled  to  imagine  laws  and  rules  which  must  be  supposed 
as  existing,  without  being  able  further  to  prove  them?  Grant 
even  one  law  is  established,  one  order  is  arranged.  The 
human  mind  will  not  quiet  down  at  the  point  of  blind  force, 
will  not  be  satisfied  with  standing  still  upon  arrival  at  a 
certain  point.  With  a  presentient  glance  it  will  always 
perceive  the  ordering  mind  that  must  have  put  it  up  in 
such  manner.  Man,  conscious  of  his  own  reason,  can  never 
resist  that  impulse. 

Nature  presents  herself  to  us  in  a  great  variety  of  beings 


On  the  Nature  of  Religion  17 

according  to  classes  and  species;  they  are  different  and 
distinct;  though  they  touch  each  other,  they  do  not  pass 
over,  one  into  the  other.  Modern  investigation  has  made 
the  bold  advance  to  search  out  how  from  the  lower  orders 
the  higher  ones  might  have  evolved,  how  from  the  most 
imperfect  organisms,  the  higher  ones  gradually  shaped  them- 
selves. Whether  it  will  succeed  in  clearing  up  also  that 
mystery,  whether  such  production  of  one  from  the  other  shall 
prove  to  be  the  truth — that  is  the  business  of  the  naturalists 
to  decide,  now  or  in  the  future.  But  this  much  we  see: 
species  do  exist,  they  do  not  change  one  into  the  other,  they 
are  apart  and  they  remain  apart.  The  same  force  which 
created  them  at  the  beginning,  one  out  of  the  other,  as 
alleged,  should  necessarily  continue  the  same  process,  should 
even  at  this  time  produce  an  animal  out  of  the  plant  and 
perfect  it  to  the  higher  organism.  But  the  present  world 
does  not  present  to  us  such  a  phenomenon,  each  kind  remains 
within  its  fixed  limits,  it  continually  begets  only  individuals 
of  its  own  kind,  and  not  one  is  transformed  into  another. 
Hence  it  is  not  a  necessarily  propelling  force,  but  an  ordering 
one  which  puts  up  each  kind  according  to  its  peculiarity  and 
preserves  it,  one  that  is  not  blindly  rushing  ahead  without 
stopping,  but  which  preserves  nature  as  a  whole,  composed 
of  different  parts,  so  that  it  is  unchangeable  both  as  a  whole 
and  in  its  variety.  Nature  is  ordered  according  to  a  definite 
willf  according  to  an  independently  ruling  reasony  and  is 
preserved  in  that  arrangement;  the  whole  universe  is  one 
structure,  united  notwithstanding  its  great  variety,  forming 
a  harmonious  whole,  notwithstanding  its  various  parts. 
That  is  wisdom^  arrangement  according  to  purpose  and  plan, 
so  that  even  destroying  forces  present  themselves  as  trans- 
forming ones,  in  order  to  cause  the  rising  of  new  and  nobler 
creations.  That  can  be  only  the  work  of  conscious  reason — 
no,  never  that  of  a  force  propelling  without  purpose.  It  is 
a  bold  word  which  a  great  astronomer  once  uttered  when  he 
presented  his  work  upon  the  mechanism  of  the  heavens  to 
his  sovereign.  The  monarch  expressing  surprise  at  not 
finding  God  mentioned  in  the  book,  the  man  of  science  said, 


18  Judaism  and  Its  History 

"I  do  not  need  that  hypothesis."  Of  course,  it  was  not 
necessary  for  him  in  his  explanation  of  the  laws  and  their 
operation,  at  the  same  time  to  state  how  those  laws  originated 
and  who  fixed  them  everlasting  and  unchangeable;  but  what 
a  man  in  a  certain  specialty  may  put  aside,  that  a  thinking 
man  can  not  avoid,  he  is  compelled  to  seek  a  higher  cause 
that  works  according  to  rational  principles. 

Man  has  to  explain  not  only  nature  surrounding  him — 
he  himself  must  be  explained  together  with  it;  he  is  part  and 
parcel  of  nature,  and  to  know  himself  is  a  task  which  he  can 
not  avoid.  But  just  to  himself  man  becomes  the  greatest 
enigma,  the  more  he  reflects  upon  himself.  It  has  been 
attempted  to  connect  man  very  closely  with  similar  creatures; 
species  of  apes  have  been  mentioned  as  being  but  very  little 
apart  from  man.  Some  kinds  of  apes,  so  it  was  said,  have 
the  appearance  of  being  sunk  in  melancholy,  as  if  pervaded 
by  a  longing  desire  to  get  out  of  that  close  restraint  of  mind. 
A  contemplative  sentiment,  such  as  man  attributes  to  the 
animal,  but  simply  attributes,  if  he  regards  and  conceives 
animal  stupor  as  melancholy.  The  distance  between  the 
most  highly  organized  animals  and  man  remains  a  gap  that 
can  not  be  filled.  To  draw  the  most  remote  parallel  between 
man  who,  despite  his  inconsiderate  bodily  strength,  notwith- 
standing he  is  in  many  ways  with  regard  to  corporeal  qualities 
inferior  to  other  animals  which  are  stronger  and  swifter,  has 
nevertheless  become  lord  of  the  earth,  of  all  creation,  who 
more  and  more  gains  dominion  over  everything  in  inanimate 
and  animate  nature,  who  accommodates  himself  to  every 
place  and  knows  how  to  control  all  conditions ;  to  draw  even 
the  most  distant  comparison  between  man  and  any  animal 
which  leads  an  unprogressive  life,  which  continuously  remains 
on  the  same  plane  and  is  limited  to  a  certain  part  of  the 
world ;  which,  without  exercising  any  influence  upon  the  rest 
of  creation,  perishes  and  leaves  no  trace  behind — such  a 
comparison,  it  must  be  admitted,  looks  like  childish  behavior, 
throwing  away  and  destroying  its  own  valuables. 

No,  man  is  of  an  entirely  different  genus.  Man  who  is 
bound  to  time  and  space  like  all  other  corporeal  and  earthly 


On  the  Nature  of  Religion  19 

creatures;  individual  man  who  is  tied  to  a  certain  locality, 
who  lives  and  moves  within  a  small  particle  of  time,  never- 
theless on  the  other  hand  overcomes  time  and  space  within 
him,  he  can  transpose  himself  into  the  most  distant  regions, 
can  place  the  past  before  him,  presuppose  the  future,  has  a 
conception  of  what  is  beyond  the  present.  Such  faculty  can 
not  be  the  attribute  of  the  body.  The  body  is  circumscribed 
by  space  and  time.  Man  has  the  power  of  recollection,  he 
bears  within  him  that  which  is  past,  he  can  recall  it,  bring 
back  the  most  various  things  from  his  memory,  knowledge 
has  become  his  property;  secure  in  the  possession  of  knowl- 
edge of  one  thing,  he  progresses  step  by  step.  Yet,  where,  in 
what  part  of  his  body  is  it?  Let  us  pronounce  the  word 
which  would  not  exist  at  all  if  the  thing  did  not  exist:  it  is 
the  spirit.  Man  has  a  spirit,  a  faculty  which  is  connected 
with  his  body  in  so  far  as  it  moves  and  animates  him,  but 
which  is  still  far  more  because  it  leads  him  to  rational  con- 
templation, opens  for  him  an  insight  into  objects  which  his 
physical  vision  is  unable  to  perceive  or  to  grasp.  That  is  a 
great  word  pronounced  by  the  thinker  who  inaugurated  the 
modern  system  of  thought:  "I  think;  therefore  I  am." 
The  consciousness  of  the  fact  that  I  think,  affords  me  the 
guaranty  that  I  am;  I  might  doubt  all  that  surrounds  me, 
might  lose  faith  in  my  own  existence,  my  physical  vision  is 
very  deceptive,  it  assures  certainty  only  through  my  con- 
sciousness. In  fact,  man  sees  all  objects  presented  to  him 
from  without  in  a  reverse  position  as  they  are  mirrored  on 
his  retina,  and  his  belief  that  he  sees  them  as  they  really  are, 
is  the  result  of  our  thought,  which  effects  the  transposition 
with  imperceptible  velocity.  Properly  speaking,  man  sees 
no  distance,  the  impression  made  of  an  object  through  the 
medium  of  ray  is  fixed  within  his  sense  of  seeing.  One  object 
appears  as  near  to  him  as  another,  no  matter  how  much  the 
one  may  be  removed  or  the  other  brought  nearer  to  him.  It 
is  for  that  reason  that,  at  first,  nothing  appears  distant  to  a 
blind  person  on  gaining  sight;  every  object  presents  itself  to 
his  vision  as  though  it  were  close  to  him.  Thought,  habit 
only,  teaches  man  to  size  the  objects  lying  between,  and  from 


20  Judaism  and  Its  History 

that  he  concludes  that  some  objects  are  not  so  near  as  they 
are  reflected  upon  his  organ  of  sight,  that  they  are  at  different 
distances.  Sounds  approach  one  after  another;  their  con- 
nection is  expressed  only  through  our  thought;  through  our 
mental  grasp  they  become  a  unit;  their  harmony  is  within 
us;  it  is,  as  it  were,  awakened  within  us  by  the  sounds  suc- 
ceeding each  other.  And  the  same  can  be  proven  with 
regard  to  all  other  senses.  Thought  gives  shape  to  the 
perception  of  our  senses,  thought  which,  at  the  same  time, 
furnishes  man  with  expression  for  all  feelings,  sentiments 
and  ideas.  For  language,  the  most  faithful  reflector  of  the 
spirit,  constitutes  the  connecting  link  between  man's  inmost 
essence  and  the  outer  world ;  language  most  decisively  marks 
him  apart  from  all  other  creatures,  language  which,  born  as 
it  were,  of  inward  clearness,  in  its  turn  renders  thought 
intelligible  and  gives  it  full  and  complete  clearness.  And 
nevertheless,  that  being  upon  whom  the  mark  of  dominion 
is  so  distinctly  stamped,  who  can  view  the  universe  and  all 
time  through  his  spirit  and  its  mind,  that  being  feels  himself, 
at  the  same  time,  limited,  meets  everywhere  bars  set  up  to 
his  life  and  thought.  An  individual  may  advance  ever  so  far 
and  still  remains  an  atom  of  humanity,  so  mankind  itself  is 
but  a  part  of  creation,  and  creation  in  its  turn  streams  forth 
from  the  source  of  a  greater  Spirit.  The  limits  adhere  to 
man ;  being  but  a  part,  he  can  not  arrive  at  a  complete  knowl- 
edge of  the  Original  Cause  of  the  whole;  he  must  ever  bear 
within  himself  the  consciousness  that  he  is  but  a  fractional 
part,  a  fragment,  incomplete. 

And  yet  man  feels  that  he  occupies  a  high  position  in 
other  respects  according  to  resolutions,  according  to  principles 
which  he  forms  for  himself;  he  proceeds  according  to  his  own 
will,  he  chooses,  he  is  the  author  of  his  own  deeds;  no  com- 
pulsion from  without  drives  him  on,  he  reflects,  judges,  and 
decides  accordingly — what  a  boundless  distinction!  Oh,  if  he 
only  could  rejoice  thereat  in  perfect  ease!  Even  there,  a 
mighty  conflict  arises  within  him.  Whatever  I  may  choose, 
however  I  may  decide,  I  am  induced  thereto  by  certain 
reasons.     These  depend  upon  knowledge,  and  this  I  have 


On  the  Nature  of  Religion  21 

derived  from  certain  causes;  aye,  I  am  a  child  of  my  time,  I 
suffer  myself  to  be  impelled  and  guided  by  what  my  time 
presents  as  truth ;  I  am  a  product  of  my  environment,  I  am 
not  my  own  creator,  I  am  not  the  author  of  my  own  actions. 
The  desire  everywhere  to  recognize  the  law  of  cause  and  effect 
crowds  against  my  freedom,  shows  a  necessary  continuance  of 
cause  and  effect,  until  I  arrive  at  causes  that  are  without  me. 
And  yet,  man  in  his  deepest  self-consciousness  feels  that  he 
is  free,  that  his  will  is  vested  with  the  power  to  oppose  and 
dominate  all  external  influences.  He  is  seized  with  repentance 
when  he  recognizes  an  action  of  his  to  be  wrong;  but  he  must 
reproach  himself  only  with  actions  that  have  been  prompted 
by  himself,  and  not  with  those  to  which  he  was  impelled  by 
uncontrollable  necessity.  Thus,  then,  man  is  free  and  yet 
again  in  bonds!  Here  also,  he  perceives  his  limits,  feels  that 
he  has  not  arrived  at  that  degree  of  perfection  for  which  he 
longs  and  of  which  he  has  presentiments.  He  is  endowed 
with  a  double  nature:  the  consciousness  of  his  greatness  and 
eminence,  and  over  against  that,  the  humiliating  feeling  of 
his  dependence;  on  the  one  hand,  the  impulse  to  raise  himself 
to  that  source  whence  has  proceeded  his  own  mental  and 
spiritual  faculty  which  is  not  self-creative  even  because  it  is 
dependent;  and  on  the  other  hand,  his  inability  to  completely 
occupy  that  highest  plane.  Now,  is  not  this  true  religion: 
the  consciousness  of  man's  eminence  and  lowness;  the  aspira- 
tion to  perfection,  coupled  with  the  conviction  that  we  can 
not  reach  the  highest  plane;  the  presentiment  of  the  Highest 
which  must  exist  as  a  freely  acting  will,  of  the  Wisdom  whence 
also  our  little  fragment  of  wisdom  proceeds,  of  an  infinitely 
ruling  Freedom  whence  also  our  limited  freedom  has  sprung 
forth — is  not  that  longing  for  the  higher,  that  soaring  up  with 
all  the  strength  of  our  soul,  the  very  essence  of  religion? 
Religion  is  not  a  system  of  truths,  it  is  the  jubilation  of  the 
soul  conscious  of  its  eminence  and,  at  the  same  time,  its 
hum.ble  confession  of  its  finiteness  and  limitations.  Religion 
is  the  aspiration  of  the  spirit  after  the  ideal;  the  pursuit  after 
the  loftiest  ideas;  the  desire  to  reach  maturity  in  spiritual 
life  and  to  dive  deeper  and  deeper  into  it;  to  conquer  the 


22  Judaism  and  Its  History 

corporeal  and  earthly;  and  on  the  other  hand,  the  unavoidable 
sentiment  that  we  are  still  linked  with  the  finite  and  limited. 
Religion  is  the  aspiration  after  the  Most  High  whom  we 
conceive  as  the  sole,  full  truth;  the  soaring  up  to  the  All- 
encircling  Unity  which  man,  through  the  whole  nature  of  his 
spirit,  presupposes  as  a  whole,  as  the  foundation  of  all  that 
exists  and  shall  be,  as  the  source  of  all  earthly  and  spiritual 
life,  of  which  he  bears  within  him  the  vivid  conviction,  though 
he  be  unable  to  completely  know  it.  All  that  may  be  desig- 
nated as  an  ancient  conception;  nothing  but  presentiment, 
longing,  assumption,  which  can  not  be  satisfactorily  proven. 
But  such  is  the  very  nature,  the  very  essence  of  man,  and  it 
must  be  so,  because  he  is  a  disconnected  being,  a  fragment 
torn  from  the  whole  spiritual  life  to  which  he  feels  himself 
attracted  without  being  able  to  perceive  it  in  its  entirety  and 
perfection.  The  great  saying  of  Lessing:  "If  God,  holding 
in  one  hand  complete  truth,  and  searching  after  truth  in  the 
other,  were  to  say  to  me,  *Man,  choose!'  I  should  ask  God 
and  say,  'The  whole  truth  is  not  for  me,  searching  after 
truth  is  fit  for  me,' "  is  a  saying  of  the  most  profound  and  truest 
religiousness.  Yea!  longing  after  the  Highest,  attachment  to 
the  Whole,  striving  toward  the  Infinite  despite  our  finiteness 
and  limitations — that  is  religion.  Therein  we  have  also  the 
guaranty  for  the  Highest  and  Infinite,  because  we  long  to  rise 
up  to  it;  for  the  Eternal  Wisdom,  for  the  Free  Agency  that 
encompasses  and  produces  everything  out  of  itself,  because 
we  aspire  thereto,  because  we  bear  the  longing  after  it  within 
ourselves.  It  can  not  be  a  fiction,  the  offspring  of  our  imagi- 
nation; it  is  the  noblest  reality  within  us.  Religion  is  not  an 
invention  of  idle  priests;  it  existed  and  exists  in  mankind,  and 
every  good  and  noble  aspiration — when  man,  putting  aside 
his  seclusive  selfishness,  lovingly  and  fervently  attaches  him- 
self to  his  country  and  gives  to  it  his  own  life  and  welfare 
and  gladly  labors  for  all  and  is  filled  with  the  desire  to  strive 
toward  the  Highest — is  the  work  of  religion.  Though  religion 
may  present  itself  according  to  its  rise  in  various  outward 
forms,  religion,  as  such,  is  a  necessity,  the  noblest  feature 
within  man.     It  will  cease  only  with  man,  not  among  men. 


On  the  Nature  of  Religion  23 

As  long  as  the  spirit's  yearning  for  the  Spirit  of  All  remains, 
as  long  as  that  must  remain,  so  long  religious  life  will  exist. 
Religion  is  life.  All  actions  of  man,  as  far  as  they  are 
prompted  by  and  are  striving  toward  higher  views,  are  the 
work  of  religion,  and  the  results  of  religion.  Religion  will 
become  purer,  more  enlightened,  its  essence  and  function  will 
be  better  understood,  and  it  will  always  remain  in  existence, 
because  man's  longing  and  imperfection  will  always  remain. 
The  more  he  advances,  the  more  he  will  feel  this  distance  from 
the  Infinite  and  Eternal  Wisdom;  but  he  will  also  the  more 
devotedly  look  up  to  it,  draw  from  it,  bow  to  it  with  fervency 
and  humility.  If  Judaism  did  and  still  does  work  such  an 
effect  as  a  religion,  it  is  one  of  the  noblest  animating  forces 
among  mankind. 


II. 

Religion  in  Antiquity,  and  Religion  in 
Judaism. 


The  preceding  considerations  do  not  lay  claim  to  estab- 
lishing new  foundations  confirming  truths  thereby.  That 
would  be  in  conflict  with  the  essence  of  religion;  it  would 
divest  it  of  its  very  peculiarity  of  being  the  inheritance  of 
humanity.  Religion  is  an  eternal,  self -containing  force,  not 
a  fragile  thing  which,  soon  breaking  down,  is  put  up  again  in 
an  altered  manner.  Nor  did  our  essay  mean  to  adduce  new, 
decisive  evidences  for  religion,  to  prove  its  existence.  Religion 
is  not  philosophy,  the  slowly  progressing  thinking  power  of 
man ;  it  is  an  inborn  longing  of  a  whole  man  who  thinks,  feels, 
and  wants  to  act  morally  and  right.  Our  intention  was 
merely  to  invite  you  to  again  examine  whether  science, 
especially  natural  philosophy  and  the  knowledge  of  man,  had 
now  so  far  progressed  as  to  have  so  clearly  solved  the  enigma 
of  existence,  of  the  nature  of  man,  and  to  have  so  thoroughly 
explained  all  antagonism  that  man's  desire  for  looking 
beyond,  for  breaking  through  finiteness,  for  seeking  some 
explanation  which  may  satisfy  the  wants  of  his  inmost  soul, 
even  if  it  may  not  afi"ord  the  most  perfect  evidence — that 
such  a  desire  ought  to  be  repudiated  as  something  foolish  and 
uncalled  for.  Religion  is  not  philosophy;  it  is  rather  the 
manifestation  of  the  force  of  attraction  spread  throughout  all 
nature.  Wherever  we  turn,  we  discover  in  the  separate  parts 
of  the  life  of  nature  a  propulsion  of  one  toward  the  other,  a 
sensation  of  one  part  being  attracted  by  another,  that  every 
being  is  invested  with  the  desire  of  one  for  another.  The 
same  force  of  attraction  moves  man,  but  with  this  difference, 
that  he  is  conscious  of  it;  he  feels  the  desire  to  associate,  to 
step  out  of  his  finiteness  and  to  connect  himself  with  the 


Religion  in  Antiquity  and  Religion  in  Judaism     25 

Infinite,  to  nestle  himself  lovingly,  with  all  the  fervency  of 
his  soul,  near  the  Source  of  Wisdom  and  Love.  Philosophy, 
like  every  other  science,  is  the  toilsome  conquest  of  indi- 
viduals, of  those  endowed  with  faculties  of  a  higher  order. 
Religion  is  a  common  property  of  humanity,  it  is  a  peculiar 
susceptibility  of  man,  which  irresistibly  develops  itself  within 
him,  more  or  less  clearly  illuminating  him  with  its  truths. 
Hence,  religion  has  existed  from  eternity  and  will  exist  unto 
eternity. 

While  religion  is  thus  the  most  individual  element  which 
appears  to  man  as  his  deepest,  innermost  quality  and  dis- 
tinguishes him  as  an  individual  in  his  belief  and  practice, 
constituting  the  inmost  motive  power  of  his  whole  being,  it 
forms,  on  the  other  hand,  the  bond  of  all  mankind,  just 
because  it  is  something  common  to  all,  the  connecting  link 
between  the  several  parts,  as  well  as  between  them  and  the 
whole.  Everything  in  each  man  is  vested  with  the  desire  of 
union  with  all  men ;  mankind  has  the  desire  that  all  individuals, 
while  completely  preserving  their  independence,  may  put 
aside  their  distinct  exclusiveness  and  co-operate  together  as  a 
united  whole.  Such  mingling  of  the  separate  individual  with 
the  common  interest  is  primarily  manifested  in  the  tribe  and 
the  nation.  A  nation  appears  as  a  unit,  distinct  from  other 
nations,  and  yet  as  a  conglomeration  of  a  large  number  of 
widely  differing  human  beings.  Thus  also,  religion  primarily 
presents  itself  as  the  religion  of  a  tribe,  but  with  the  instinct 
to  conquer  all  mankind,  to  gather  all  under  its  banner.  If 
that  instinct  is  powerful  enough,  if  religion,  though  presenting 
itself  as  a  tribal  or  national  religion,  yet  rises  superior  to  its 
nationality,  if  it  continues  its  existence  after  the  fetters 
which  national  life  had  put  upon  it  have  been  broken,  if  it 
does  not  die  when  the  people  among  whom  it  lived  have  lost 
their  existence  as  a  nation,  then  indeed,  it  has  successfully 
passed  the  trial  of  its  reliability  and  its  truth.  Judaism  has 
proved  itself  a  force  outliving  its  peculiar  nationality  and 
therefore  may  lay  claim  to  special  consideration.  But  the 
fact  of  enduring  existence  alone  should  not  sway  our  judg- 
ment ;  an  examination  into  its  intrinsic  worth  alone  can  afford 


26  Judaism  and  Its  History 

us  a  true  measure  for  our  estimate.  A  comparison  between 
Judaism  and  other  religions  at  a  time  when  they  had  not  yet 
come  into  contact  with  it  and  had  not  yet  been  affected  by 
its  influence,  will  furnish  us  the  surest  conviction  of  its 
superiority  over  the  other  religions  of  Antiquity. 

Without  doubt,  the  most  talented  nation  of  Antiquity 
which  was  distinguished  by  noble  culture  and  which  exerted 
the  most  profound  influence  upon  the  development  of  the 
whole  human  race,  whose  art  and  science  have  had  the  most 
vivifying  and  quickening  effect  upon  all  times,  so  that  when 
they  were  again  dug  up  from  under  the  rubbish  that  had 
covered  them  so  long,  they  appeared  as  a  refreshing  well  from 
which  humanity  drank  with  greedy  drafts — that  nation  was 
the  Greek  nation.  As  Pallas  Athene  comes  forth  armed  and 
equipped  from  the  head  of  Zeus,  thus  also  the  Greek  nation 
appears  on  the  stage  of  history  completely  furnished  with  the 
noblest  weapons  of  the  mind,  decked  out  with  the  loveliest 
bloom  of  life.  Even  in  its  first  authors  and  poets,  it  displays 
its  whole  inner  being,  presenting,  though  not  yet  grown  out 
of  its  infancy  nor  fully  emerged  from  semisavagery,  a  har- 
monious, complete  nature.  Its  most  ancient  poet.  Homer, 
has  remained  an  unequaled  pattern  for  all  time.  He  exhibits 
an  imagination  which  boldly  soars  up  and  yet  is  not  unbridled, 
a  taste  for  the  beautiful  and  harmonious  expressed  in  the 
noblest  euphony.  How  much  joy  we  derive  from  beholding 
the  beautiful,  noble  forms  of  his  creation!  Men  of  giant 
strength  and  yet  sobered  and  moderated  by  an  innate  feeling 
for  the  decorous;  figures  that,  though  high  and  sublime,  move 
and  affect  us  by  their  childlike  traits.  Nausicaa  in  her 
maiden  modesty,  Penelope's  touching  faithfulness,  the 
stalwart,  bold  Hector  affectionately  bidding  farewell  to  his 
wife  and  playing  with  his  child — those  are  everlasting,  noble, 
human  figures  to  which  we  return  again  and  again  with 
heartfelt  elation.  And  what  strange  religious  belief  did  that 
richly  endowed  nation  bring  forth!  How  imperfect  and 
childish  is  its  belief  concerning  the  Divine,  its  mythology! 
Its  gods — for  of  an  only  God  there  is  no  mention — are  a  set 
of  powerful  turbulent  aristocrats  presided  over  by  a  more 


Religion  in  Antiquity  and  Religion  in  Judaism      27 

powerful  one.  A  more  powerful  one,  but  by  no  means  an 
All-Powerful  One;  for  his  power  is  not  effectual  everywhere, 
is  barely  able  to  execute  what  his  will  had  resolved  to  accom- 
plish. Why,  the  other  gods  at  one  time  ventured  to  bind 
him;  of  which  he  was  once  reminded  by  Thetis,  who  saved 
him: 

"When  the  other  Olympians  did  once  threaten  to  bind  him" 

she  called  Briareus  to  her  assistance, 

"    .     .     for  his  strength  is  greater  than  even  his  father's." 

His  power  being  thus  limited,  that  of  the  other  gods  is 
still  more  so.  It  is  true,  they  surpass  man;  but  after  all, 
they  are  but  greater,  more  exalted  men  whom  even  mortals 
can  resist,  and  who  are  even  wounded  by  bold  heroes.  Why, 
Cypris  and  Ares,  the  god  of  war,  receive  wounds  at  the 
hand  of  the  impetuous  Diomedes!  And  when  Venus  com- 
plains of  her  disgrace,  her  mother  consoles  her  with  the  reply: 

"Many  of  us  who  inhabit  Olympian  houses  have  suffered 
Grief  at  the  hands  of  men " 

Above  the  gods  there  stands  a  mysterious,  unconquerable 
power,  before  which  even  the  gods  must  bow.  Ate,  the 
goddess  of  mischief,  dements  them,  so  that  Agamemnon  refers 
to  her  in  order  to  clear  himself  from  responsibility,  saying, 

"What  then,  indeed,  could  I?    All  things  are  done  by  the  goddess, 
Jove's  all-powerful  child,  Ate,  dementing  all  mortals. 
She  allures  them  to  sin,  and  one  at  least,  she  misguided; 
Jove  himself,  she  seduced,  though  he  surpasses  supremely 
Men  and  gods  in  power    .     .     .     . " 

and  then  relates  how  she  deceived  him : 

" Jove  did  not  suspect  her  deception, 

Uttered  the  fatal  oath  and  sustained  deep  grief  for  his  rashness." 

Jove  has  no  power  to  control  unavoidable  Fate,  Moira, 
and  breaks  into  this  lament: 

"Woe  me!    Woe  me!    Fate  now  wills  that  Sarpedon,  of  mortals 
Dearest,  should  fall  by  the  hand  of  Patroclus,  the  son  of  Menoetius." 


28  Judaism  and  Its  History 

The  same  doctrine  resounds  centuries  thereafter,  out  of 
Sophocles: 

"The  pow'r  of  Fate  supremely  rules  Indeed, 
No  Ares  can,  nor  courage  bold, 
Nor  towers,  nor  the  blackened  ship 
Borne  by  the  waves,  escape  its  blows." 

Thus  even  Ares,  the  god  of  war,  must  yield  to  that  mys- 
terious power. 

That  an  omniscience  of  the  gods,  or  even  of  the  highest 
god,  can  not  be  even  imagined,  is  evident  from  the  idea  that 
they  are  ruled  by  Ate,  are  demented  and  deceived  by  her, 
because  they  are  ignorant  of  what  is  to  happen.  Therefore, 
we  must  not  be  astonished  to  hear  very  strange  statements 
concerning  the  life  of  the  gods,  how  they  indulge  in  sweet 
slumber: 

"Now  all  beings,  the  gods  as  well  as  the  warriors  gallant 
Slept  all  night;  but  slumber  would  flee  from  the  eyes  of 
Jove,  who  pondered  within  his  soul " 

He  was  awake,  not  because  he  never  sleeps  nor  slumbers, 
but  because  reflections  in  which  he  indulged  drove  sleep 
away.  Those  imperfections,  those  ideas  unworthy  of  God, 
are  deeply  rooted  in  moral  defects  to  which  the  gods  are  heirs, 
in  foibles  exhibited  with  the  most  open  naivety.  We  have  seen 
that  Ate  dements  them  and  causes  them  to  do  wrong;  they 
also  revel  in  repasts,  indulge  in  the  most  sensual  pleasures, 
break  faith  and  promises,  perpetrate  fornication,  dispute  and 
quarrel  in  the  most  intolerable  manner,  so  that  even  Jove  can 
not  help  complaining  to  Thetis: 

"Fatal,  indeed,  it  is,  that  strife  and  contention  with  Here 
Thou  wilt  excite,  who  will  upbraid  me  with  gibes  and  reproaches. 
Why,  she  quarrels  already  with  me  in  the  midst  of  th'  immortal 
Gods,  unceasing " 

They  are  cruel  and  arbitrary,  envy  men  their  happiness 
and  welfare;  and  if  they  now  and  then  protect  the  cause  of 
justice,  it  is  merely  the  whim  of  the  moment,  which  at  another 
time  is  frustrated  by  all  sorts  of  causes. 


Religion  in  Antiquity  and  Religion  in  Judaism     29 

If  then,  the  gods  are  such,  it  is  but  natural  that  the  men 
who  have  produced  such  divine  ideals  and  looked  up  to  them, 
can  not  aspire  to  true  perfection.  Man,  it  is  true,  is  often 
better  than  his  principles,  and  the  Greeks  may  also  have 
been  better  than  their  mythology  would  lead  us  to  suppose 
them  to  have  been.  Nevertheless,  the  ideal  of  the  divinity 
above  us  and  the  ideal  of  the  morality  within  us  is  too  close, 
that  the  defects  of  the  former  should  not  make  an  impression 
on  the  latter.  Let  us  consider  how  that  is  shown  in  Hellen- 
ism. It  is  emphatically  man's  limitations  and  evanescence: 
All  must  die  and  pass  away;  man  has  no  power  to  contend 
against  the  gods,  and  whenever  he  ventures  to  do  so,  guilt 
and  horrible  ruin  will  pursue  him.  Therefore  man  should 
put  off  all  pride,  abstain  from  all  bold  aspirations,  move 
within  certain  limits.  Moderation — Sophrosyne — is  the  true 
virtue,  the  taste  for  the  proper  and  decorous,  for  harmony, 
the  intelligence  for  judging  and  limiting;  virtue  is  the  middle 
of  the  road  between  all  extremes,  preventing  all  excesses. 
Accordingly,  to  the  Greek,  virtue  is  the  Useful,  the  Agreeable; 
but  the  inner  striving  for  higher  purity,  the  desire  to  put  off 
human  moral  defects,  and  to  lean  on  the  Divine  as  the  source 
of  all  purity,  had  not  come  clearly  to  the  surface  with  the 
Greeks.  The  consciousness  of  our  sinfulness,  of  the  dis- 
position of  our  nature  which  is  limited  also  as  to  purity;  the 
consciousness  of  the  continual  struggle  which  we  have  to 
make  against  sensuality,  in  order  to  be  able  to  follow  our 
impulse  toward  the  good  and  perfection — a  struggle  which 
ennobles  and  elevates  man,  which  through  repentance  even 
leads  him  to  worthy  victory — such  ideas  were  almost  com- 
pletely hidden  from  Greek  perception.  If  the  later  poets 
who  drew  from  the  noblest  elements  of  Greek  nature,  if  the 
tragic  poets  preeminently  emphasize  guilt  as  the  cause  of  the 
most  difficult  entanglement  in  human  existence,  the  guilt  is 
almost  always  brought  over  upon  the  sufferer,  not  the  result 
of  his  own  doings,  but  inherited  from  sire  to  son  down  to 
succeeding  generations.  Because  someone  would  not  honor 
the  gods,  scorned  them,  dared  to  contend  against  them, 
defiled  himself  by  heavy  guilt,  that  guilt  passes  over  upon  a 


30  Judaism  and  Its  History 

succeeding  generation  which  suffers  and  perishes  by  it, 
without  taking  an  active  part  in  the  matter.  It  is  not  a 
really  moral  struggle,  not  a  guilt  from  which  man  has  to 
cleanse  himelf ;  it  is  blind  Fate  that  throws  the  sin,  posterity 
is  laid  in  chains  by  the  cruel  decree  of  ancient  guilt.  Of 
course,  we  are  moved  at  seeing  such  a  struggle,  when  great 
strength  shakes  its  fetters;  we  feel  our  weakness,  we  bow  in 
reverent  fear,  it  is  a  taming  of  passions,  as  Aristophanes 
expresses  it,  but  not  a  moral  elevation.  But  how  different 
it  is  if  man,  though  conquered  physically,  gains  the  victory 
within  himself  by  his  moral  exertions,  by  his  struggles  against 
external  adversities;  if  noble  thoughts  give  support  to  him; 
when  profound  ideas  gain  the  ascendency  within  him  in  spite 
of  the  actuality  without  which  does  not  permit  their  execu- 
tion; if  the  individual  as  the  representative  of  a  higher  idea 
must  yield,  but  nevertheless  rises  a  hero,  a  victor  even  in 
defeat: — that  higher  conception  we  find  but  little  exhibited 
in  Hellenism. 

Greek  philosophy  is  not  blind  to  those  shortcomings  and 
defects;  it  did  not  hesitate  to  express  its  censure.  In  the 
sixth  century  before  the  Christian  era,  Xenophanes,  the 
founder  of  the  Eleatic  School,  severely  inveighs  against  a 
belief  in  such  gods.  Their  plurality  is  an  objection  to  him; 
only  a  unity  agrees  with  a  true  conception  of  Deity.  He 
censures  also  the  idea  that,  even  if  the  gods  are  not  mortal 
they  had  a  beginning,  as  if 

"It  were  not  so  wicked  to  believe  they  had  been  born, 
As  to  present  them  vested  with  mortality." 

When  sacrifices  and  dirges  are  part  of  the  worship  of  the 
goddess  of  the  sea,  Leucothea,  he  denounces  the  contradic- 
tion: 

"If  she  be  mortal,  sacrifice  should  not  be  offered  to  her; 

If  she  be  goddess,  funeral  dirges  should  not  be  sung  for  her." 

Thus  also,  he  inveighs  against  the  fancy  that  the  gods 
occupy  certain  localities,  that  they  have  certain  forms,  and 
especially  the  sensual  qualities  that  are  attributed  to  them 
without  hesitation: 


Religion  in  Antiquity  and  Religion  in  Judaism      31 

"Hesiod  and  Homer  attribute  unto  the  gods 
Whatever  disgraces  the  mortals  and  calls  for  censure, 
Robbery,  and  adulterous  practice,  and  cunning  deception." 

Here  we  perceive  a  full  and  clear  acknowledgment  of  the 
imperfect  idea  of  Deity  in  Hellenism,  a  severe  censure  pro- 
nounced by  one  of  the  more  ancient  Greek  philosophers,  but 
one  which  was  hardly  repeated  with  such  scorching  emphasis. 
Later  philosophers  have  not  entirely  abstained  from  censure, 
but  they  preferred  an  attempt  to  idealize,  to  teach  purer  ideas 
of  Deity  and  man's  relation  to  it,  without  undertaking  such 
a  distinct  fight  against  the  current  belief.  Such  action  on 
their  part  undoubtedly  proceeded  less  from  fear  of  the  issue 
of  a  conflict  between  their  conviction  and  error,  it  rather 
seems  as  though  they  felt  that  such  a  conflict  would  involve 
the  very  essence  of  the  nation,  that  it  would  cut  the  nerve  of 
national  life  by  openly  assaulting  the  history  of  their  gods. 
They  sought  to  remain  more  or  less  in  agreement  with  the 
popular  belief,  either  by  ignoring  it,  or  by  attempts  to  explain 
it.  But  if,  nevertheless,  a  bold  expression  now  and  then 
ventured  out  among  the  people,  such  a  decided  opposition 
arose  that  the  critic  was  soon  forced  into  silence.  Anaxagoras 
and  Protagoras  were  compelled  to  go  into  exile;  Socrates, 
who  treated  the  popular  belief  with  great  discretion,  had  to 
drink  the  poisoned  chalice.  The  popular  belief  of  the  Greeks 
was  not  susceptible  of  transformation  or  reformation ;  it  had 
to  remain  such  as  it  was,  or  cease  altogether.  A  religion 
which  bears  within  itself  a  more  powerful  idea  than  it  can 
exhibit  in  the  transient  imperfection  of  the  time,  may,  in  the 
course  of  its  development,  cast  away  many  a  side-shoot, 
efface  many  antiquated  expressions  and  produce  new  ones  by 
its  creative  energy.  But  a  religion  that  has  completely 
exhausted  itself  by  its  very  appearance,  whose  stem,  blossom, 
and  fruit,  fully  correspond  to  its  root  and  have  taken  all 
available  substance  out  of  that,  must  perish  down  to  its  very 
root,  when  its  blossom  and  fruit  are  injured.  Such  was  the 
case  with  Hellenism. 

Considering  that  one  of  the  most  talented  nations  of 
Antiquity  produced  such  crude  religious  conceptions,  we  need 


32  Judaism  and  Its  History 

hardly  cast  an  examining  glance  at  the  multitude  of  other 
nations  that  have  passed  away  without  leaving  any  vestige 
of  culture ;  nations  that  lived  in  rude  savageness  must  naturally 
have  had  rude  notions  concerning  the  Deity  and  man's  rela- 
tion to  it.  And  when  we  contemplate  the  groups  of  nations 
surrounding  the  Jews,  nations  that  far  surpassed  that  little 
people  in  power  and  kept  it  encircled,  some  of  which  for  a 
time  exerted  decisive  influence  upon  the  destiny  of  the  world, 
we  shall  feel  horrified  at  the  savage  cult  that  prevailed  among 
them,  at  the  excesses  presented  as  divine  worship:  human 
sacrifices  offered  up  to  Moloch,  who  robbed  mothers  of  their 
children  to  consume  them  in  his  red-hot  embrace,  degenerate 
debaucheries  as  pleasing  worship  of  their  gods.  The  standing 
expression  of  the  bible,  *'to  go  a-whoring  after  the  gods  of 
the  nations,'*  may  be  taken  in  its  most  literal  meaning.  A 
horrible  picture! 

Now,  in  the  midst  of  such  surroundings,  Judaism  ap- 
peared, and,  like  the  witch  of  Endor  at  seeing  Samuel,  we  may 
well  exclaim,  "I  see  God  ascending  out  of  the  earth;"  out  of 
the  earth  that  is  defiled,  given  up  to  sensuality,  desecrated  by 
low  practices,  out  of  that  earth  I  behold  the  Divine  arise  in 
lustrous  purity.  The  name  attributed  in  Judaism  to  God 
was  afterwards  most  significantly  considered  as  ineffable, 
because  no  name  can  comprise  Him,  is  adequate  to  His  being; 
the  very  sounds  of  that  name  have  been  lost,  and  we  do  not 
know  its  true  pronunciation.  But  its  meaning  is  certain. 
**He  is"  is  that  meaning;  as  God,  speaking  of  Himself, 
proclaims  in  holy  writ,  "I  am  who  I  am,"  so  man  says  of 
Him,  "He  is!" — the  Only  Existence,  the  All-comprising, 
both  for  nature  and  for  the  life  of  man.  He  is  and  as  such 
All-comprising  naturally  also  absolute  Unity.  That  term  of 
unity  resounds  through  all  the  writings  of  Judaism  and  the 
fundamental  axiom  of  Israel  is:  "Hear,  O  Israel,  He  is  is  our 
God,  He  is  is  one."  That  Existence  which  comprises  all,  is 
the  Sole,  fully  living  Individuality,  but  at  the  same  time,  as 
the  Most  Universal  One,  indivisible.  "Ye  saw  no  manner  of 
form,"  you  heard  only  utterances,  you  observed  only  the 
brilliant  light  beaming  forth  from  Him,  sounds  proceeding 


Religion  in  Antiquity  and  Religion  in  Judaism      33 

from  Him ;  those  are  merely  effects ;  but  to  represent  Him  by 
an  image,  Judaism  had  avoided  as  a  great  monstrosity,  as 
the  greatest  abomination.  For  that  Infinity,  the  Jews  have 
at  all  times  sacrificed  their  lives.  It  was  this  that  at  first 
appeared  as  something  curious  in  the  eyes  of  heathendom: 
a  religion  without  idols.  Even  Juvenal  still  refers  to  it, 
saying: 

"Nil  praeter  nuhes  et  coeli  numen  adorant" 

Nothing  but  cloud  and  a  God  of  heaven  they  worship. 

**There  is  no  image  in  the  Temple  of  the  Jews!'*  Tacitus 
scornfully  writes — a  queer  religion  without  images.  And 
just  that  was  its  very  core,  the  conviction  of  the  All-compris- 
ing— "the  whole  earth  is  full  of  His  glory."  And  to  this 
Unity,  to  this  idea  of  the  All-comprising  One,  naturally 
omnipotence  is  joined.  Should  there  be  anything  impossible 
for  God?  "Is  God's  hand,  perchance,  waxed  short?"  Nor 
are  the  pages  of  Judaism  less  full  of  the  conception  of  God's 
omnipotence,  of  that  supreme  wisdom  which  penetrates  and 
searches  everything;  of  the  eyes  of  God  that  see  through 
everything,  not  merely  beholding  the  outward  appearance, 
but  looking  into  the  heart,  into  the  innermost  mind  of  man. 
No  man  can  fully  grasp  true  wisdom  which  is  so  sublime  and 
can  be  found  only  with  God.  Thus  Job  teaches,  taking  his 
beautiful  poetical  comparison  from  the  science  of  mining: 

"There  is  a  vein  for  the  silver,  and  a  place  for  gold  where  they  fine  it. 
Iron  is  taken  out  of  the  earth,  and  brass  is  molten  out  of  the  stone.  Man 
setteth  an  end  to  darkness,  and  pierceth  down  to  the  bottom,  to  the 
stones  of  darkness  and  the  shadow  of  death.  The  flood  breaketh  forth 
before  him,  which  runneth  about  there,  forgotten  by  the  foot,  removed 
from  men.  The  earth,  out  of  which  cometh  bread,  is  turned  up  under  it 
as  by  fire.  There  is  a  place  of  sapphires  and  precious  stones,  and  it  hath 
dust  of  gold.  That  path  no  fowl  knoweth  and  the  vulture's  eye  hath  not 
seen  it.  .  .  .  Man  cutteth  out  rivers  among  the  rocks,  and  he  seeth 
every  precious  thing.  .  .  .  But  where  shall  wisdom  be  found?  Where 
is  the  place  of  understanding?  Man  knoweth  not  the  price  thereof,  it  is 
not  found  in  the  land  of  the  living.  The  depth  saith,  It  is  not  in  me,  and 
the  sea  saith,  It  is  not  in  me.  .  .  .  Destruction  and  death  say,  We 
have  heard  the  fame  thereof  with  our  ears.  God  understandeth  the  way 
thereof,  and  He  knoweth  the  place  thereof." 


34  Judaism  and  Its  History 

A  grand  presentation  of  wisdom,  hidden  from  the  eyes  of 
men,  and  seen  through  only  by  God ! 

But  all  that  is  surpassed  by  the  conviction  of  God*s 
Holiness,  of  the  purity  that  can  not  bear  the  sight  of  evil, 
nor  tolerate  wrong.  *'  Of  pure  eyes,  so  that  He  can  not  behold 
evil,  nor  look  on  iniquity." 

God  is  pure,  holy.  He  alone,  and  no  other  being  besides 
Him.  In  His  holiness,  He  is  all-kind,  gracious,  merciful: 
"Self -existent,  eternal,  almighty,  gracious  and  merciful, 
long-suffering,  and  abundant  in  goodness  and  in  truth,"  that 
is  the  keynote  running  through  all  doctrines  and  convictions 
of  Judaism.  He  is  the  Loving  One,  who  though  He  also 
awards  punishments,  loves  the  repentant  and  extends  His 
hand  to  him,  that  he  may  turn  from  his  evil  ways,  for  He 
rejoices  in  all  His  works  and  accords  His  love  to  all  of  them. 

Guilt  is  not  fate  irretrievably  clinging  to  man:  "I  have 
no  pleasure  in  the  death  of  the  sinner,  but  that  he  may  turn 
from  his  ways  and  live,"  that  he  may  attain  the  true  and 
pure,  higher  life.  The  certainty  of  His  justice,  of  His  bound- 
less love  for  man,  is  based  upon  such  immovable  foundation 
in  Judaism,  that  even  the  saddest  experiences  can  not  shake 
the  conviction  thereof.  Poets  and  prophets  complain  of 
sufferings  and  trials;  they  present  the  riddles  of  human 
experience;  they  can  not  understand  why  many  fare  well 
or  ill  on  the  earth  contrary  to  their  practices;  they  confess, 
too,  that  they  are  unable  to  find  the  full  explanation  of  such 
facts.  But  they  are  far  from  uttering  any  doubt  of  the 
justice  of  God  on  that  account;  their  conviction  remains 
unshaken,  that  His  proceeding  is  based  on  supreme  justice. 

The  relation  of  men  to  God  and  to  each  other  tends  toward 
the  same  ideal.  Man  is  a  finite,  limited,  dependent  being; 
that  thought  is  often  repeated  in  Judaism. 

But  the  complaint  about  it  is  by  no  means  as  predominant 
as  in  Hellenism.  The  fact  is  accepted  with  quiet  resignation, 
together  with  the  consciousness  of  man's  high  position,  and 
that  consciousness  breaks  forth  everywhere  as  with  jubilation. 
At  the  very  beginning  it  is  said:  "Let  us  make  man  in  our 
image,  after  our  likeness,"  a  likeness  to  God,  which  is  soon 


Religion  in  Antiquity  and  Religion  in  Judaism      35 

explained  as  referring  to  the  spirit.  "He  breathes  into  his 
faculties  the  spirit  of  life."  Endowed  with  that  likeness, 
man  is  soon  represented  in  his  greatness.  The  psalmist  says: 
"Thou  hast  crowned  him  (man,  who  is  so  insignificant  and 
puny)  with  glory  and  honor.  Thou  madest  him  to  have 
dominion  over  the  works  of  Thy  hands.'*  Everywhere  man 
is  presented  to  us  in  that  high  position  which  advantage 
actually  gives  him  the  impulse  for  further  development  and 
aspiration  to  higher  eminence.  For  man  has  the  capability 
of  higher  development : 

"Yea,  there  is  a  spirit  in  mankind  and  the  inspiration  of  the  Almighty 
giveth  them  understanding." 

Reason  being  a  ray  from  Divine  Reason,  ennobles  man, 
awakens  within  him  the  desire  more  and  more  to  rise  toward 
the  Supreme  Reason.  But  the  most  essential  element  in 
him  is  the  consciousness  of  his  moral  power,  which  is  innate 
in  man  and  is  the  foundation  of  his  real  nobility;  and  which, 
even  because  it  awakens  his  aspiration  to  perfect  purity, 
makes  him  feel  his  limitations  along  that  line,  and  the  bars 
to  moral  life  so  much  the  more.  He  feels  that  sensuality 
accompanies  him  from  his  infancy,  that  it  is  a  part  of  his 
nature,  so  that  a  conflict  is  started  between  his  sensuality  and 
his  spiritual  ideals:  "the  desire  of  man's  heart  is  evil  from  his 
youth.'*  That  sentence  expresses  the  imperfection  which  is 
also  manifested  in  the  moral  life,  an  appetite  the  allurements 
of  which  we  have  the  power  to  resist.  In  ancient  time  the 
question  was  raised,  why  the  bible  begins  with  an  account  of 
the  beginning  of  time  instead  of  the  first  commands,  and  why 
all  that  introduction.  The  answer  runs:  "He  hath  showed 
to  His  people  the  power  of  His  works,"  and  though  com- 
mandments do  not  occupy  the  first  space,  yet  the  pages  con- 
tain considerations  replete  with  religious  element.  The 
question  was  prompted  by  a  narrow,  literal  view.  But  when 
we  read  that  beginning  of  the  bible,  we  discover  a  deep 
significance  in  the  naive  and  simple  presentation  which  even 
at  this  day  not  only  fascinates  us,  but  furnishes  material  for 
reflection.    Not  only  that  creation  is  presented  in  its  well- 


36  Judaism  and  Its  History 

constructed  order,  the  conflict  within  man  is  brought  in  too. 
We  behold  man  first  in  his  innocence,  then  soon  in  struggle 
with  craving  that  is,  of  course,  part  of  his  nature;  he  must 
control  it  if  he  does  not  want  to  become  a  prey  to  sin.  Physi- 
cal desire  did  not  allure  the  first  man  only,  it  is  part  of  the 
nature  of  all  men  and  in  that  way  the  mother  of  sin  which 
is  not  an  involuntary  inheritance  from  father  to  son  but  is 
committed  by  every  one  individually.  Sin  proceeds  also 
from  selfishness,  from  the  narrowminded  separation  of  man 
from  his  fellow-man;  it  is  the  product  of  envy  and  manifests 
itself  as  discord ;  Cain  is  filled  with  ill-will  against  his  brother. 
There  we  meet  the  great  word:  "Sin  lurketh  at  the  door, 
unto  thee  is  its  desire,  hut  thou  canst  rule  over  it.'' 

At  the  entrance  into  the  outer  world,  in  our  connection 
with  it,  sin  is  lurking;  but  thou  art  a  man,  endowed  with 
the  sublime  power  of  the  will,  who  is  not  bound  to  yield  to  sin, 
to  whom  sin  is  not  an  external,  invincible  pov/er,  but  a 
desire  within,  which  can  be  kept  down  by  using  thy  better 
force.  The  doctrine  of  man's  striving  for  self-ennoblement, 
of  the  conflict  from  which  he  can  and  should  proceed  as  victor, 
is  presented  to  us  everywhere.  With  that  moral  conviction, 
connected  as  it  is,  with  the  consciousness  of  his  limitations 
on  that  point,  he  moves  toward  Eternal  Purity  and  seeks  its 
aid  in  loving  devotion.  Love  of  God  is  an  idea  which  pagan- 
ism did  not  know,  which  Judaism  presents  with  such  sublime 
simplicity,  as  though  it  were  a  matter  of  course:  "Thou 
shalt  love  the  Lord,  thy  God,  with  all  thy  heart,  with  all  thy 
soul,  and  with  all  thy  might.**  "Though  my  flesh  and  my 
heart  faileth,  God  is  the  strength  of  my  heart  and  my  portion 
forever.  '*  "  It  is  good  for  me  to  draw  near  to  God.  '*  "Whom 
have  I  in  heaven  but  Thee?  And  there  is  none  upon  earth 
that  I  desire  besides  Thee." 

Those  are  expressions  found  scattered  about  in  great 
numbers.  The  full  devotion,  the  intensity  of  feeling,  where- 
with moral  man  attaches  himself  to  the  Highest  Moral  Purity, 
to  God's  holiness,  the  expression  of  such  a  relation  to  the 
Most  High,  determines  also  the  relation  of  men  to  each  other, 
produces  the  mutual  attachment  of  men  to  each  other  in 


Religion  in  Antiquity  and  Religion  in  Judaism     37 

love:  *'Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself"  is  an  ad- 
monition which  in  like  manner  is  treated  as  a  matter  of  course 
and  is  not  especially  accentuated;  it  bears  its  own  emphasis 
within  itself,  because  it  runs  through  the  whole  law,  whose 
every  provision  breathes  love.  I  shall  point  only  to  one  noble 
moral  flower,  the  like  of  which  is  probably  not  to  be  found 
in  the  law  books: 

"Thou  shalt  not  respect  the  person  of  the  poor  in  judgment." 

That  the  person  of  the  rich  and  respected  should  not  be 
given  advantage  is  also  emphasized,  of  course;  and  such 
admonition  appears  natural  against  the  temptation  of  favor- 
ing the  rich  man,  in  view  of  the  benefits  that  his  good  will 
might  afford,  or  of  violating  justice  in  favor  of  the  influential 
one  on  account  of  his  power.  But  Judaism  presupposes 
also  sympathy,  commiseration  with  misfortune  as  such,  a 
profound  fundamental  trait,  that  it  apprehends  justice  might 
be  violated  in  suit-at-law  in  favor  of  the  poor,  who  might  be 
favored  even  if  in  the  wrong,  just  because  he  is  in  distress. 
Beware  also  of  such  an  act!  Sympathy  and  pity  are  emo- 
tions that  have  their  proper  place  and  use,  but  even  those 
noble  feelings  must  be  silent  before  justice.  In  that  script- 
ural command,  there  is  a  height  of  conception,  a  sublimity 
of  moral  view,  which  we  can  but  reverence. 

And  this  Religion  has  also  in  its  very  nature  the  impulse 
to  offer  its  blessings  as  the  religion  of  humanity.  It  is  an  ex- 
alting strain  resounding  from  all  prophets  and  poets  in  the  idea 
that  the  acknowledgment  of  God  will  spread  over  all  the 
world;  it  is  not  to  be  a  narrow  nationality  but  a  complete 
humanism.  Because  God  is  the  Sole  Father  of  all  men,  be- 
cause Love  turns  toward  all  men  and  should  bring  its 
quickening  and  consecrating  power  to  all: 

'  God  shall  be  king  over  all  the  earth :  in  that  day  there 
sha     be  one  God,  and  His  name  one. 

*They  shall  beat  their  swords  into  plowshares  and 
their  spears  into  pruning  hooks,  nation  shall  not  lift  sword 
against  nation,  neither  shall  they  learn  war  any  more." 

A  time  shall  come  when  all  nature  is  transformed,  when 


38  Judaism  and  Its  History 

enlightened  mankind  will  so  prevail  that  savagism  exists  no 
more  and  even  the  wild  beasts*  havoc  ceases,  "and  the  suck- 
ling child  shall  play  on  the  hole  of  the  adder,  and  the  weaned 
child  shall  put  his  hand  on  the  basilisk's  den;  they  shall 
not  hurt  nor  destroy  in  all  my  holy  mountain :  for  the  earth 
shall  be  full  of  the  knowledge  of  God,  as  the  waters  cover 
the  sea.'* 

The  religion  shall  be  a  light  to  all  people:  "My  house 
shall  be  a  house  of  prayer  unto  all  nations."  At  the  consecration 
of  the  Temple,  Solomon  prays  also  for  the  stranger  who  cometh 
out  of  a  far  country:  "Hear  Thou  him,  O  God  in  heaven, 
Thy  dwelling  place,  and  do  according  to  all  that  the  stranger 
calleth  to  Thee  for."  That  is  a  grand  sweeping  look  beyond 
oneself,  beyond  the  barrier,  an  aspiration  manifesting  that 
the  idea  in  Judaism  is  mightier  than  the  vessel  in  which  it 
first  appeared;  it  seems  as  if  from  every  side  we  hear  the 
ancient  teacher's  words:  "Let  the  vessel  be  broken,  but 
preserve  the  precious  contents,"  the  contents  that  cannot 
be  contained  by  the  physical  outside  matter. 

In  such  manner,  Judaism  presents  itself  to  us,  and  its 
very  simplicity  and  originality  reveal  its  inexhaustible  glory. 
Even  the  foregoing  short  outlines  show  the  vastly  different 
form  in  which  that  religion  entered  the  world,  how  it  was 
the  only  one  of  its  kind,  unlike  all  other  religions  in  Antiquity. 
Besides,  it  must  be  considered  that  it  arose  among  a  nation 
that  did  not  develop  a  finished  logical  system  of  philosophy, 
that  is  not  distinguished  by  works  of  other  sciences  or  of  art, 
and  yet  brought  forth  such  conceptions  and  views  unaided, 
as  if  prompted  by  some  inner  force.  How  did  it  happen 
that  such  a  people,  a  mere  tribe  surrounded  by  so  many 
mightier  nations,  which  had  no  opportunity  of  having  an 
unobstructed  view  of  the  great  events  in  the  world,  which 
had  to  fight  many  battles  for  its  bare  existence,  which  was 
confined  within  a  limited  territory,  and  had  to  employ  all 
its  resources  to  defend  itself  against  its  powerful  enemies — 
how  did  it  happen  that  such  a  people  rose  to  those  sublime 
conceptions?  It  is  an  enigma  in  the  world's  history.  Who 
will  give  us  a  complete  solution? 


III. 

Revelation. 

There  are  facts  of  such  an  overwhelming  power  that 
even  the  most  stubborn  opinion  must  yield  to  them.  Such 
a  fact  is  the  origin  of  Judaism  in  the  midst  of  rude  surround- 
ings, like  a  vigorous  growth  out  of  a  barren  soil.  We  have 
essayed  to  draw,  in  a  few  scanty  outlines,  a  comparison 
between  the  convictions,  presentiments  and  assertions  that 
prevailed  in  Antiquity  in  general,  and  those  presented  by 
Judaism.  Even  that  incomplete  sketch  must  convince  the 
unprejudiced  mind  that  we  behold  an  original  energy  which 
has  preserved  its  significance  for  all  times  and  has  proven 
to  be  a  creative  force.  Let  us  for  a  few  more  moments,  dwell 
upon  the  principal  representatives,  the  organs  of  that  religious 
idea,  upon  the  Prophets.  In  them  we  perceive  characters  of 
quiet  greatness,  of  simple  sublimity;  of  fervor  with  modera- 
tion; of  boldness  with  humble  submission — traits  that  are 
imposing  and  make  us  feel  the  very  breath  of  a  higher  spirit. 
Our  ancient  teachers  observe:  *'No  two  prophets  deliver 
the  prophetic  message  in  the  same  strain  and  expression. 
Each  one  of  them  is  complete  within  himself,  each  has  a 
peculiar,  distinct  character  of  his  own,  and  yet  all  have  the 
same  general  characteristics  and  are  animated  by  one  great 
idea.  Isaiah^  bold,  noble,  severely  serious,  and  yet  lovingly 
indulging  in  the  most  joyful  and  glorious  hopes,  full  of  the 
most  cheerful  confidence;  hence  hurrying  from  gloomy  pre- 
dictions and  threats  of  severe  chastisement  over  to  a  descrip- 
tion of  a  most  brilliant  future.  Jeremiah^  tender-hearted, 
looking  sad  into  the  tangled  and  desperate  condition  of 
his  time;  hence  plaintive  and  reproving  his  contemporaries 
with,  severity,  yet  never  despairing,  yet  full  of  cheerful  con- 
viction that  the  idea  he  proclaims  must  prevail,  if  not  in  his 
time,  certainly  in  the  future.    Ezekiel,  as  if  overwhelmed 


40  Judaism  and  Its  History 

by  the  idea  that  animates  him,  as  if  dazzled  by  the  light 
surrounding  him,  indulges  in  bold  figures  in  the  effort  to 
represent  the  glory  of  his  visions,  yet  clearly  and  fully  con- 
scious whenever  moral  precepts  are  to  be  distinctly  emphasized 
to  his  people;  and  withal,  endowed  with  that  clear,  compre- 
hensive vision  which  penetrates  the  very  heart  of  man  and 
calls  attention  to  his  faults  and  virtues.'*  Our  ancient  teachers 
finely  describe  that  difference:  "Isaiah  appears  as  a  man 
of  the  palace,  familiar  with  the  manners  and  the  pomp  of  a 
court,  with  the  divine  appointments,  speaks  only  in  general 
terms  of  its  brilliancy;  standing  on  an  eminence,  he  draws 
the  sublime  in  his  own  light.  Ezekiel  appears  as  a  villager 
who  is  suddenly  brought  into  brilliant  city  life,  and  in  his 
excitement  does  not  know  where  to  stop  in  his  picturing  of 
both  the  detail  and  the  whole  of  his  impressions.**  They 
differ,  but  all  are  devoted  to  one  great  idea,  all  are  sustained 
by  the  same  higher  spirit. 

They  love  their  country  with  intense  fervor;  their  speeches 
and  admonitions  are  addressed  to  the  people  at  widely  dif- 
ferent times,  to  uplift  them,  to  strengthen  and  encourage 
them,  to  support  their  country  and  the  national  life.  They 
love  their  country,  take  profound  pleasure  in  describing  it 
as  a  land  flowing  with  milk  and  honey,  a  land  in  which  a  man 
"may  eat  bread  without  stint,'*  "whose  stones  are  iron, 
out  of  whose  hills  thou  mayest  dig  brass";  joyfully  they  de- 
scribe it  as  a  land  that  has  been  favored  by  God  with  the  most 
various  blessings,  but  the  most  essential  matter  to  them 
always  remains:  "For  from  Zion  goeth  forth  the  Law,  and 
the  word  of  God  from  Jerusalem.**  "Mountains  around 
about  Jerusalem,  but  God  round  about  His  people.** 

And  with  naivety  and  affection,  the  condition  of  that 
land  in  comparison  with  Egypt  is  described:  "The  land 
whither  thou  goest  in  to  possess  it  is  not  like  the  land  of 
Egypt  from  whence  you  came  out,  there  ye  sowed  seed  and 
watered  it  with  your  own  labor,  as  a  garden  of  herbs:  but 
the  land  whither  ye  go  to  possess  it,  is  a  land  of  hills  and 
valleys,  and  drinketh  water  of  the  rain  of  heaven:  a  land 
which  God  forever  careth  for:    His  eyes  are  always  upon  it, 


Revelation  41 

from  the  beginning  of  the  year  even  unto  the  end  of  the 
year." 

Egypt,  it  is  true,  is  a  garden  of  God  in  the  eyes  of  the 
Israelites,  a  land  which,  by  the  annual  overflowing  of  the 
Nile  and  by  canals,  carries  water  everywhere;  which  may  be 
cultivated  with  the  sure  hope  of  success;  which  exhibits,  with 
but  rare  exceptions,  its  fertility  from  year  to  year  and  offers 
its  rich  treasures  in  abundance;  but  nevertheless,  Palestine 
is  prized  more  highly :  a  land  of  valleys  and  mountains,  need- 
ing rains,  depending  upon  Nature's  moods,  so  that  the  eye 
of  God  has  to  be  upon  it  from  the  beginning  of  the  year  to 
its  end:  and  therein  consists  the  glory  and  the  excellence  of 
the  country. 

They  glorify  that  land  as  an  especially  favored  and  gifted 
one;  and  even  when  it  has  vanished  from  them,  when  it  has 
been  taken  from  them,  their  strength  is  not  broken,  they  are 
not  bound  to  its  soil;  their  love  for  their  earthly  country  rests 
upon  their  love  for  a  higher  one  from  which  a  ray  descends 
upon  the  former.  The  poet,  after  bewailing  the  destruction  of 
the  city,  the  banishment  of  its  inhabitants,  after  having 
indulged  in  lamentations,  exclaims:  "Thou,  O  God,  remain- 
est  forever;  Thy  throne,  from  generation  to  generation" — a 
thought  which  runs  through  thousands  of  years,  even  after 
the  national  life  has  disappeared.  Can  it  be  wondered  at 
that  such  a  cheerful  confidence  exerted  a  powerful  influence 
also  on  later  generations?  You  hear  the  same  words  centuries 
thereafter.  The  state  was  destroyed  a  second  time,  every 
hope  blasted,  the  last  flickering  light,  kindled  by  Ben  Kosiba, 
was  put  out,  and  Roman  oppression  lay  heavy  upon  the 
people.  Rabbi  Akiba  with  some  friends  visited  Jerusalem, 
and  they  saw  a  jackal  running  out  from  where  formerly  the 
Holy  of  Holies  had  been  standing.  Akiba's  companions 
wept  and  rent  their  clothes;  Akiba  remained  quiet,  almost 
cheerful.  His  friends  asked,  "Since  when  have  you  become 
so  indiff"erent  to  the  misfortunes  of  our  people?  Do  you 
not  see  the  second  fulfillment  of  the  words:  'Yea,  for  this 
do  we  weep,  because  of  the  mountain  of  Zion,  which  is  desolate, 
jackals  walk  about  upon  it? '  "     "Well,  my  friends,"  replied 


42  Judaism  and  Its  History 

Akiba,  "indeed  those  words  have  again  been  verified;  but 
the  other  will  also  come  true:  *Thou  O  God,  remainest 
forever.  Thy  throne  from  generation  to  generation.*  I  live 
in  unshaken,  firm  confidence." 

That  the  prophets  did  not  look  for  security  of  their  per- 
sons when  the  interests  of  the  cause  demanded  their  devotion; 
that  they  labored  with  entire  unselfishness,  regardless  of 
appreciation  or  glory  or  praise,  is  attested  by  every  word 
uttered  by  them.  It  appears  as  though  the  words  spoken  by 
one  of  them  resounds  through  all  their  sermons: 

"I  gave  my  back  to  the  smiters  and  my  cheeks  to  them 
that  plucked  off  the  hair,  I  hid  not  my  face  from  the  shame 
and  spitting,  for  God  the  Lord  will  help  me;  therefore  shall 
I  not  be  confounded,  therefore  have  I  set  my  face  like  a  flint, 
I  know  I  shall  not  be  ashamed." 

And  though  from  different  sides  they  heard  cries  such 
as  these:  "  Prophesy  to  us  of  wine  and  strong  drink,"  "Fool- 
ish is  the  prophet,  the  man  of  the  spirit  raveth,"  they 
did  not  yield,  they  did  not  desecrate  their  lips,  they  did 
not  keep  silent:  "The  Lord  God  hath  spoken,  who  can 
but  prophesy?"  A  higher  force  impelled  them,  would  not  suffer 
them  to  keep  silent,  to  grow  weary  of  preaching;  it  was  a 
moral  and  spiritual  enthusiasm  that  placed  them  on  an 
eminence  to  which  we,  in  later  days,  must  ever  look  up. 

Thus  Judaism  is  a  grand  phenomenon  in  history;  and  thus 
its  representatives  and  organs  are  men  of  such  dignity  and 
spiritual  greatness  that  we  must  pay  them  the  tribute  of  our 
admiration.  They  entered  the  lists  without  being  encouraged, 
without  having  patterns  before  them;  on  the  contrary,  in  a 
discouraging  environment,  encircled  by  nations  addicted 
to  idolatry,  amidst  priests  and  proclaimers  of  other  nations 
who  did  homage  to  sensuality  which  degraded  human  nature. 
Whence,  then,  came  that  force  which  all  at  once  enters  the 
scene  as  something  original?  We  arrive  here  at  the  consider- 
ation of  the  very  depth  and  bottom  of  the  human  soul, 
beyond  which  it  can  not  go,  of  an  energy  creating  of  its 
own  apprehension,  without  being  impelled  thereto  by  any 
external  impulse. 


Revelation  43 

We  discriminate,  in  general,  a  two-fold  intellectual 
operating  ability  in  man,  a  two-fold  distinguishing  endowment 
— we  discriminate  talent  and  genius.  They  touch  upon 
each  other  in  many  points,  so  that  a  distinct  line  of  demark- 
ation  can  not  be  drawn  between  them;  yet  they  preserve 
each  its  own  particular  peculiarity;  they  are  not  only  sepa- 
rate, but  they  differ  in  their  whole  nature,  in  their  foundation. 
Talent  is  an  endowment  with  the  ability  of  easily  and  quickly 
receiving,  digesting,  and  reproducing  with  taste  and  skill; 
but  talent  leans  upon  something  that  has  been  achieved, 
upon  results  that  are  present  before  it,  upon  treasures  already 
acquired — it  creates  nothing  new.  Genius  works  quite  dif- 
ferently. It  is  independent,  it  creates,  it  discovers  truths 
heretofore  hidden,  it  discloses  laws  heretofore  unknown;  it 
is  as  though  the  forces  that  work  in  the  depth  of  nature 
bared  themselves  to  it  in  greater  clearness  according  to  their 
connection  and  legitimate  co-operation;  as  though  they  pre- 
sented themselves  to  it  to  be  grasped,  as  though  the  mental 
and  spiritual  movements  in  the  individual  as  well  as  in  man- 
kind as  a  whole,  unveiled  themselves  before  it,  that  it  may 
behold  the  deepest  foundation  of  the  soul  and  may  be  able  to 
dissect  the  motives  and  impulses  hidden  away  there.  Talent 
may  be  practiced,  it  may  even  be  acquired  by  laborious 
application;  genius  is  a  free  gift,  a  gift  of  grace,  a  mark  of 
consecration  stamped  upon  man,  that  can  never  be  acquired, 
if  it  be  not  in  the  man.  Talent,  therefore,  can  not  overcome 
impediments  and  obstacles  if  they  present  themselves  with 
overwhelming  force,  it  can  not  thrive  under  unfavorable  cir- 
cumstances. Genius,  on  the  other  hand,  advances  its 
conquering  force  against  the  most  untoward  conditions,  it 
opens  a  way,  it  must  expand  its  force,  for  it  is  a  living  impulse, 
a  power  that  is  stronger  than  its  possessor,  a  touch  of  the 
energy  dispersed  into  nature  but  condensed  in  him,  linking 
him  with  the  Spirit  of  all  spirits  who  manifests  Himself  to 
him  by  higher  illumination.  Talent  propagates  the  knowledge 
which  has  been  stored  up,  perfects  it  also  now  and  then,  and 
makes  it  the  common  property  of  all.  Genius  enriches 
humanity  with  new  truths  and   perceptions,   it  gives  the 


44  Judaism  and  Its  History 

impulse  to  all  great  things  that  have  come  and  are  still  to 
come  to  pass  in  this  world. 

When  Columbus  discovered  the  New  World,  he  had  not 
been  specially  prepared  for  it,  nor  fitted  thereto  by  superior 
geographical  knowledge,  by  greater  experience  gained  on 
his  voyages;  nor  could  those  justify  any  conclusion  that  India 
was  to  the  west  of  Spain.  It  was  the  light  of  genius  that 
caused  him  to  see  the  surface  of  the  earth,  he  was  favored 
with  a  look  into  the  nature  of  the  globe  and  to  feel  that  the 
land  must  be  across  the  ocean  which  had  been  thought  to  be 
boundless;  and  thus  what  had  been  as  knowledge,  but  im- 
perfect, in  him,  turned  into  living  conviction  whose  truth  he 
made  every  effort  to  prove.  Copernicus  was  probably  not 
the  greatest  astronomer  of  his  time;  others  may  have  made 
more  correct  calculations  and  may  have  been  far  superior  to 
him  in  the  science,  but  it  was  as  if  the  whole  working  of  the 
natural  forces  of  attraction  and  repulsion  and  the  entire 
movement  of  the  world  had  been  revealed  to  his  vision;  as 
though  the  veil  which  dark  tradition  had  thickened,  had  been 
drawn  aside  from  before  him;  as  though  he  had  looked  with 
bold  eye  into  the  mechanism  of  the  universe  and  held  fast  to 
what  he  had  seen  as  a  rapidly  grasped  truth  which  he  after- 
wards with  deep  insight  tried  to  substantiate,  in  which  he 
did  not  fully  succeed,  because  it  had  to  be  more  clearly 
explained  and  more  firmly  established  than  he  was  able  to  do 
then.  Newton  is  said  to  have  been  induced  to  establish  the 
law  of  gravitation  by  the  falling  of  an  apple  observed  by  him 
while  sitting  near  an  apple  tree.  Many  people  before  him 
had  seen  apples  falling,  but  not  with  the  eye  of  genius;  for 
that  beholds  in  the  single  phenomenon  the  great,  comprehen- 
sive law  which  causes  that  phenomenon ;  it  looks  through  that 
external  manifestation  into  the  invisible  working  from  which 
everything  proceeds. 

Such  instances  could  be  added  to  by  others  from  every 
field.  The  historian  who  deserves  the  name  as  such,  is  not 
made  by  the  profundity  and  care  in  research,  the  full  knowl- 
edge of  all  incidents;  he  is  perhaps  often  compelled  to  refuse 
a  mass  of  burdensome  material  in  order  not  to  be  perplexed 


Revelation  45 

and  crushed  by  crowd  of  details.  But  this  affords  him  his 
favored  position,  that  his  vision  is  sharper  and  sees  into  the 
character  of  the  time,  that  the  entire  working  of  the  wheels 
of  the  ideas  moving  in  the  depths  of  the  period,  is  laid  bare 
before  him.  It  is  as  if  the  period  as  a  whole  with  its  deepest 
foundations  uncovered,  stood  before  his  mental  vision,  as  if 
he  had  actually  listened  to  the  most  secret  intentions  of  its 
chief  actors.  In  that  way,  all  that  was  before  known  is  put 
into  its  proper  place,  because  the  connection  between  the 
events  and  the  actors  has  only  become  perfectly  clear.  You 
may  perhaps  call  that  good  sense,  acumen,  a  happy  faculty 
of  combination.  When  the  acute  thinker  does  not  run  into 
error,  when  his  combination  knows  how  to  connect  the 
proper  parts,  then  it  is  the  work  of  genius.  And  what  is  it 
that  enables  the  poet  to  look  so  deep  into  the  soul  that  he 
recognizes  the  temperament,  the  desires,  the  passions  so 
clearly,  as  though  the  chambers  of  the  heart  were  opened  for 
him?  What  enables  him  to  grasp  and  present  all  complica- 
tions and  combinations  in  the  most  various  relations  and 
conditions,  however  much  they  may  be  entangled  and  hidden 
to  ordinary  vision,  and  to  fathom  and  picture  a  character  in 
its  unity?  Is  it  the  great  experience  he  has  had?  Is  it 
that,  perchance,  he  himself  has  passed  through  all  that? 
Certainly  not!  It  is  the  vision  that  more  surely  and  sharply 
receives  the  picture  of  the  whole  life  of  the  human  soul  from 
the  individual  phenomenon  and  knows  how  to  represent  it. 
In  fact,  it  is  only  genius  that  enables  an  individual  to  inter- 
fere with  might  in  the  movements  of  the  mind  and  spirit  and 
to  give  them  a  forward  impulse  for  centuries  to  come — and. 
as  it  is  in  individuals,  so  it  is  in  whole  nations  as  well. 

The  Greeks  boasted  of  being  autochthons,  of  having  risen 
and  sprung  from  their  own  soil.  We  shall  not  examine 
whether  that  claim  is  justified;  but  another  claim,  which  is 
the  real  meaning  of  it,  will  surely  be  admitted;  namely,  the 
autochthonic  character  of  their  mind,  the  aboriginal  nature 
of  their  national  talent.  The  Greeks  had  neither  pattern  nor 
teacher  in  art  or  science,  they  were  teacher  and  .master  to 
themselves,  they  speedily  attained  such  perfection  in  art  as 


46  Judaism  and  Its  History 

makes  them  instructors  of  mankind  almost  for  all  time.  It 
is  as  though  a  higher  living  sense  for  the  Beautiful,  the 
Harmonious,  the  Symmetrical,  and  the  Pleasing  had  been 
innate  in  that  nation — we  observe  a  National  Genius  through 
the  possession  of  which  masters  in  every  art  and  science  made 
their  appearance.  Therefore,  even  later  centuries  willingly 
listened  to  the  words  of  that  nation,  hastened  thither,  where 
they  could  see  the  works  of  the  plastic  art,  where  they  could 
enjoy,  as  it  were,  a  rejuvenating  bath  in  the  spiritual  fountain 
that  parts  thence  and  runs  through  the  centuries.  Is  not  the 
Jewish  people,  likewise,  endowed  with  such  a  genius,  a 
Religious  Genius?  Is  it  not,  likewise,  an  aboriginal  power 
that  illuminated  its  eyes  so  that  they  could  see  deeper  into 
the  higher  life  of  the  spirit,  could  feel  more  deeply  and  recog- 
nize more  vividly  the  close  relation  between  the  spirit  of  man 
and  the  Supreme  Spirit,  that  they  could  more  distinctly  and 
clearly  behold  the  real  nature  of  the  Moral  in  man,  and  then 
present  to  the  world  the  result  of  that  inborn  knowledge.  If 
this  be  so,  we  may  speak  of  a  close  touch  of  the  individual 
spirit  with  the  Supreme  Spirit,  of  the  light  thrown  into 
individual  spirits  by  the  Power  that  fills  everything,  so  that 
they  could  break  through  their  finite  barrier;  it  is — let  us  not 
hesitate  to  speak  the  word — it  is  Revelation ,  and  that  too,  as 
manifested  in  the  whole  nation. 

The  Greeks  were  not  all  artists;  each  one  of  them  was  not 
a  Phidias  or  a  Praxiteles,  but  yet  the  Greek  nation  alone  was 
capable  of  producing  such  great  masters.  The  same  was  the 
case  within  Israel.  Surely  not  all  its  men  were  prophets,  and 
the  exclamation,  "Would  that  all  the  people  were  prophets" 
was  but  a  pious  wish;  the  other:  *'I  shall  pour  out  My 
spirit  upon  all  flesh,"  is  a  promise,  it  had  not  become  the  reality. 
Nevertheless,  Israel  is  the  people  of  revelation  within  which 
the  favored  representatives  appeared ;  it  is  as  if  the  sparks  of 
light  had  been  scattered  and  had  been  gathered  into  a  blaze 
in  the  more  favored  ones.  A  thorn-bush  produces  no  grape- 
vine; a  neglected  people  produces  no  prophets  such  as  the 
Jews  gave  to  the  world.  The  historical  books  of  the  bible  are 
full  of  reproach  about  the  morals  and  the  depravity  of  the 


Revelation  47 

people  of  Israel  at  the  time  of  their  kings;  the  authors  want 
to  prepare  us  for  the  devastation  that  came  on  later  as  a 
punishment  for  their  sins.  Yet,  noble  forces  in  great  number 
must  have  existed  within  that  nation ;  there  must  have  been 
a  native  endowment  and  disposition,  when  men  of  such 
significance  could  rise  and  develop  out  of  the  people. 
Judaism  was  not  a  mere  voice  crying  in  the  wilderness, 
and  though  it  did  not  prevail  in  all,  it  was  still  an 
energy  which  existed,  though  weaker  in  many,  yet  to  such  an 
extent  that,  concentrating  in  individuals,  it  could  produce 
such  heroes  of  the  spirit.  Nor  does  Judaism  claim  to  be  the 
work  of  individuals,  but  that  of  the  whole  people.  It  does 
not  speak  of  the  God  of  Moses  or  of  the  God  of  the  prophets, 
but  of  the  God  of  Abraham,  Isaac,  and  Jacob,  of  the  God  of 
the  whole  race,  of  all  the  patriarchs  who  were  equally  endowed 
with  the  gift  of  prophetic  vision,  the  genius  of  revelation 
which  was  latent  in  the  whole  people  and  found  concentration 
and  expression  in  individuals.  The  fact  that  the  greatest 
prophet  left  his  work  unfinished  contains  a  great  truth: he 
must  not  be  regarded  as  the  Atlas  who  bears  the  world  on 
his  shoulders,  who  completes  the  work  without  the  co-opera- 
tion of  others  from  beginning  to  end.  "No  man  knoweth  of 
his  sepulchre  unto  this  day"  and  our  ancient  teachers  remark, 
"His  grave  should  not  serve  for  a  place  of  pilgrimage  whither 
people  go  to  do  honor  to  one  and  thus  raise  him  above  the 
level  of  man."  Moses  did  his  part  of  the  work  according  to 
his  great  capacity  as  one  of  the  whole  people.  Judaism  arose 
within  the  people  of  revelation.  And  why  then  should  we 
not  use  the  word  where  we  touch  bottom  rock,  an  illumination 
proceeding  from  a  higher  mind  and  spirit,  which  can  not  be 
explained;  which  is  not  a  compound  produced  by  a  process 
of  development  even  if  it  is  further  developed  afterwards; 
which  all  at  once  appears  in  existence  as  a  whole,  like  every 
new  creation  proceeding  from  the  Original  Spirit?  We  do  not 
want  to  limit  and  define  the  word  in  any  dogmatic  manner; 
it  may  be  understood  in  different  ways,  but  as  to  its  essence 
it  remains  the  same:  the  point  of  contact  of  human  reason 
with  the  Fundamental  Source  of  all  things.     High  as  the 


48  Judaism  and  Its  History 

ancient  teachers  estimated  revelation,  they  never  denied  that 
it  is  connected  with  human  ability.  The  Talmud  teaches: 
"The  spirit  of  God  rests  only  on  a  wise  man,  on  a  man  pos- 
sessing moral  power,  who  is  independent  because  he  is  frugal 
and  contented  by  having  conquered  all  ambition,  greed,  and 
desire;"  a  man  who  bears  his  importance  within  him,  who 
feels  the  divine  within  him.  Only  such  a  one  is  capable  of 
receiving  the  Divine,  not  a  mere  speaking  trumpet  through 
which  the  spoken  word  passes  without  his  being  conscious  of 
it;  no,  a  man  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word,  who  touches  close 
upon  the  divine  and  is  therefore  susceptible  of  it.  A  deep 
thinker  and  great  poet  of  the  Middle  Ages,  Juda  Ha-Levi, 
emphatically  designated  revelation  as  a  disposition  that  was 
present  in  the  whole  people.  Israel,  he  says,  is  the  religious 
heart  of  mankind  which  in  its  totality  always  preserved  its 
greater  susceptibility,  and  its  individual  distinguished  men 
were  the  heart  of  that  heart.  Maimonides  speaks  of  a  flash- 
like illumination  as  which  revelation  must  be  regarded ;  to  one 
the  light  lasted  but  for  a  short  time,  to  another  it  occurred 
repeatedly,  and  with  Moses,  it  was  a  lasting  one,  an  illumination 
which  lights  up  the  darkness,  affords  man  a  look  into  the 
hidden  recesses,  which  reveals  to  him  what  remains  con- 
cealed for  others. 

Judaism  is  such  a  religion,  has  grown  out  of  such  divine 
visions  and  has  connected  into  a  whole  all  that  it  did  behold; 
Judaism  is  a  religion  of  truth,  because  the  view  into  the 
essence  of  things  is  infallible,  beholding  the  Unchangeable  and 
the  Everlasting:    That  is  its  everlasting  message. 


IV. 

Nationality,  Slavery,  Woman's  Position. 

Every  new  birth  is  attended  with  painful  labor ;  every  new 
idea  which,  creative  and  transformatory,  enters  into  the 
mental  world,  must  expect  a  hard  and  obstinate  fight  with  all 
those  mental  powers  which  insist  on  their  right  of  custom  and 
well  feel  that  they  are  threatened  with  destruction  by  a 
mightier  force;  they  contend  against  it  with  all  the  bluntness 
and  rudeness  of  inert  possession,  with  all  the  violent  arro- 
gance of  mental  shallowness  which  easily  works  itself  into 
bitter  harshness.  An  idea  which  endeavors  to  create  a  new 
mental  and  spiritual  life,  must  of  course  fight  with  mental 
weapons,  it  bears  within  itself  the  guaranty  of  certain 
victory,  it  sees  in  it  something  imperishable  which  is  equal  to 
all  emergencies  and  can  defy  all  obstacles.  But  though  it 
enters  the  mental  world  light- winged,  it  will,  by  the  pro- 
tracted contest,  be  compelled  to  put  on  coarser  material  arms 
and  harness,  in  order  not  to  be  crushed  at  the  very  outset. 
Young  David  enters  a  glorious  fight  and  comes  out  of  it 
victorious.  Saul,  on  hearing  of  his  bold  resolution,  armed 
him  with  his  armor,  and  put  a  helmet  of  brass  upon  his  head ; 
also  he  armed  him  with  a  coat  of  mail.  David  tried  to  go, 
but  he  takes  them  off  again,  saying,  "I  can  not  go  with 
these,  for  I  am  not  accustomed  to  them."  He  enters  the 
contest  with  Goliath,  armed  only  with  his  shepherd's  staff  and 
smooth  stones — and  conquers.  It  is  the  confidence  of  bold 
youth  that  objects  to  constraint  and  will  not  be  fettered;  it 
is  the  assurance  of  victory,  manifested  in  the  shepherd  boy 
whose  mind  has  grown  up  and  gained  vigor  in  contact  with 
nature.  But  can  you  suppose  that  David,  after  having 
passed  on  into  the  serious  struggles  of  his  life,  would  then  also 
refuse  helmet  and  armor?  As  he  became  more  deeply  engaged 
in  life's  battling,  he  was  forced  to  also  adopt  life's  usages. 


50  Judaism  and  Its  History 

though  full  of  the  bold  spirit  of  youth.  And  the  same  is  the 
case  with  an  idea,  if  it  is  to  assume  real  life,  that,  though  it 
be  conscious  of  its  mental  and  spiritual  existence,  it  must  also 
bear  arms  and  enter  the  bloody  contest  of  opposition,  offered 
to  it  from  all  sides. 

Judaism's  doctrine  of  revelation  has  not  been  spared  its 
battles.  By  struggle,  individual  man  gains  strength,  he  needs 
it;  but  here  and  there  it  will  cover  him  with  dust.  Judaism 
also  needed  such  a  struggle  against  the  world,  and  in  conse- 
quence, many  a  dust  from  the  earth  has  settled  upon  it.  In 
opposition  to  the  whole  world,  possessed  by  other  conceptions, 
there  arose  a  small  nomadic  tribe  that  had  just  emerged  from 
a  great  empire  addicted  to  idolatry.  It  must  needs  keep 
closely  together,  lest  it  be  crushed  beneath  the  weight  of  the 
outside  powers.  With  the  divine  spirit  that  had  been  fanned 
into  life  within  it,  it  intended  to  proclaim  a  new  faith,  pre- 
serve it,  and  make  it  victorious  throughout  the  world.  A 
beautiful,  grand,  sublime,  but  difficult  task!  Every  contact 
with  the  outside  world  was  a  snare;  every  word  exchanged 
with  a  person  outside  of  its  own  pale  contained  a  temptation ; 
every  friendly  meeting,  every  meal  taken  with  the  outsider 
was  profanation,  because  it  was  dedicated  to  his  idols.  Thus 
every  closer  association  was  a  sin,  a  temptation  offered  by  the 
outside  world.  And  could  it  be  avoided  that  many  in  Israel 
jast  eager  looks  at  the  brilliant  pomp  surrounding  them 
everywhere?  Of  course,  a  living  spirit  was  present  in  the 
whole  people,  not  only  in  the  individual,  distinguished  rep- 
resentatives who  were  the  implements  of  shaping  and  firmly 
setting  the  new  thoughts  in  corresponding  expressions,  it  was 
present  in  the  whole  people,  even  if  in  lower  and  weaker 
degree.  But  would  there  not  also  be  many  who  suffered 
themselves  to  be  seduced  by  the  material  pomp,  by  the  allur- 
ing prevalence  of  superior  numbers?  The  entire  history  of 
Israel  during  the  period  of  the  first  Temple,  covering  the  very 
establishment  of  the  faith,  offers  innumerable  instances  of 
apostacy,  of  energetic  battling,  which  the  truly  enthusiastic, 
the  great  men,  had  to  carry  on  against  their  wayward  ones. 

The  closer  the  seductive  influence  approached  to  Israel, 


Nationality,  Slavery,  Woman's  Position  51 

the  more  the  danger  increased  that  the  worm  of  corruption 
might  gnaw  into  the  body  of  the  sound  trunk,  so  much  the 
more  had  the  glowing  zeal  of  the  better-minded  to  increase 
for  keeping  that  danger  at  a  distance;  they  were  compelled 
to  contend  against  the  inroads  of  the  corruption  with  all 
possible  determination,  with  a  fire  of  energy  that  would  not 
only  produce  heat,  but  consume  the  evil  itself.  Considering 
that  condition,  should  we  then  be  surprised,  if  we  find  here 
and  there  a  harsh,  severe  expression  against  other  nations, 
that  implacable  opposition  to  them  is  preached  and  practiced? 
Should  we  marvel  that  in  a  contest  wherein  not  a  bit  of 
territory  or  some  other  earthly  territory  is  at  stake,  but 
wherein  defense  is  made  for  an  idea  which  the  combatants 
reverence  as  their  highest  treasure;  which  raises  them  above 
the  nations,  which  is  destined  to  be  spread  over  the  whole 
earth  by  the  people  chosen  for  that  purpose — should  we  marvel 
if  the  fire  of  devotion  and  enthusiasm  burns  in  them  in  mighty 
flames  and  puts  them  into  glowing  heat,  so  that  now  and  then 
they  uttered  sentiments  which  did  not  always  express  the 
purest  benevolence,  the  most  friendly  consideration  for  those 
that  wanted  to  rob  them  of  their  most  valued  treasure  by 
their  allurements?  We  fail  altogether  to  transpose  ourselves 
into  that  time  and  its  conditions  if  we  gauge,  with  the  large- 
hearted  idea  of  tolerance  appropriate  to  an  age  of  considerate 
mutual  recognition  and  appreciation,  a  time  in  which  two 
antagonistic  convictions  were  engaged  in  a  struggle  of  life 
and  death;  if  we  want  to  judge  every  harsh  word  with  superior 
tenderness,  if  we  talk  of  hostile  nationality  and  national  pride 
(which,  by  the  way,  make  their  appearance  even  nowadays 
for  vastly  less  valuable  possessions),  while  the  stake  was  by 
no  means  something  merely  national,  but  was  the  protection 
of  freedom  of  the  mind  and  spirit  and  the  safety  of  the  very 
foundation  of  truth,  as  well  as  the  neutralization  of  all  de- 
structive influences.  No,  it  must  not  appear  strange  if  we 
meet  many  a  severe  expression,  with  many  a  harsh  precept; 
on  the  contrary,  it  must  ever  be  a  proof  of  the  mental  and 
spiritual  vigor  with  which  the  people  were  endowed,  that  in 
those  struggles  the  conscious  impulse  for  holding  all  mankind 


52  Judaism  and  Its  History 

in  its  embrace  and  laboring  for  it  has  not  disappeared  out  of 
Israel;  that,  notwithstanding  that  hostile  attitude  which 
could  be  but  mutual,  there  always  prevailed  the  word:  that 
this  religion  came  into  existence  for  the  benefit  of  the  whole 
world,  that  the  whole  earth  should  be  comprised  within  its 
fold.  It  affords  a  testimony  of  the  profound  spiritual  life  of 
Judaism,  that  the  purity  and  clearness  of  that  idea  were  never 
dimmed.  We  are  uplifted  indeed  when,  despite  all  outbursts 
of  passion  engendered  by  the  heat  of  the  conflict,  we  can  again 
breathe  the  refreshing  spiritual  air  as  it  flows  from  the  words 
of  the  prophets:  "Let  not  the  son  of  the  stranger  that  has 
joined  himself  to  God  speak,  saying,  *God  has  utterly  sep- 
arated me  from  His  people,'  neither  let  the  eunuch  (the 
eunuchs  of  the  Persian  court  are  here  referred  to)  say, 
*  Behold,  I  am  a  dry  tree.'  For  this  saith  the  Lord  unto  the 
eunuchs  that  keep  my  festivals,  and  choose  the  things  that 
please  me,  and  take  hold  of  my  covenant;  even  unto  them  I 
will  give  in  my  house  and  within  my  walls  a  place  and  a  name 
better  than  of  sons  and  of  daughters,  an  everlasting  name  that 
shall  not  perish.  And  the  sons  of  the  stranger  that  join  them- 
selves unto  God  to  serve  Him  and  to  love  His  name,  that 
keep  the  Sabbath  from  polluting  it,  and  take  hold  of  my 
covenant:  even  them  I  will  bring  to  my  holy  mountain  and 
make  them  joyful  in  my  house  of  prayer,  their  burnt  offerings 
and  their  sacrifices  shall  be  accepted  upon  mine  altar;  for 
mine  house  shall  be  called  a  house  of  prayer  for  all  people." 
''It  is  not  sufficient,"  thus  we  read  elsewhere,  "that  thou 
alone  shouldst  be  my  servant:  I  will  also  give  thee  for  a 
light  to  the  gentiles."  And  again  we  read:  "And  I  will  also 
take  of  them  for  priests  and  Levites."  All  mankind  is  to  be 
united  in  the  one  true  service  of  God. 

It  is  mere  nonsense  to  assert  that  Judaism  teaches  the 
doctrine  of  a  national  god,  a  god  belonging  exclusively  to  the 
one  people.  Such  an  assertion  is  even  childish,  made  in  the 
very  face  of  the  passages  quoted  and  in  plain  contradiction 
of  the  oft-repeated  vision  of  the  future  when  God  will  be  One 
and  His  name  one.  It  is  true  that  here  and  there  an  expres- 
sion can  be  found,  apparently  attributing  some  importance  to 


Nationality,  Slavery,  Woman's  Position  53 

idols,  such  as,  ''Greater  is  our  Lord  than  all  gods"  and  others 
like  it.  But  how  does  the  prophet  so  often  characterize 
them?  *'One  breath  and  there  is  nothing  good  in  them." 
And  with  what  fine  irony  does  he  show  how  the  gods  are 
made,  how  the  workmen  work  with  their  hammers  and  assist 
each  other,  how  one  portion  of  the  material  is  used  to  prepare 
food  with,  while  the  other  is  employed  to  fashion  a  god  from  it! 
How  can  that  refer  to  a  national  god?  Yes,  a  God  is  spoken 
of  who  was  first  recognized  among  that  people;  nay,  was  first 
acknowledged  by  that  nation  alone,  but  who  is  the  God  of 
the  whole  world,  the  God  whose  throne  is  the  heavens  and 
His  footstool  is  the  earth?  That  surely  is  the  God  of  the 
world,  the  God  who  fills  all  time  and  space,  the  God  who 
shall  be  acknowledged  by  all  nations.  We  perceive  here 
the  traces  of  a  struggle  in  which,  of  course,  many  expressions 
must  occur  that  do  not  wholly  and  perfectly  correspond  to 
the  spiritual  idea,  but  lucid  clearness  is  gradually  developed. 
We  behold  ancient  Jacob  as  he  must  wrestle  in  the  darkness 
with  a  man,  they  are  covered  with  dust,  and  he  limps  because 
the  hollow  of  his  thigh  gets  out  of  joint,  but  yet  he  prevails, 
prevails  according  to  both  the  human  and  the  divine  idea, 
and  becomes  a  blessing  to  all  mankind. 

But  Judaism  was  not  intended  simply  to  introduce  a  new 
idea  concerning  God  into  the  world,  but  also  to  dignify  and 
ennoble  all  human  relations.  The  men  who  taught  in  ancient 
time,  "The  true  foundation  and  the  nerve  of  the  Law,  What- 
ever displeases  thee,  do  not  unto  others,  that  is  the  essence 
and  the  root  of  the  Law,  all  the  rest  is  commentary  which 
thou  mayest  learn  at  thy  leisure,"  or,  "Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself,  that  is  the  great  comprehensive  principle 
of  the  Law,"  or,  "This  is  the  book  of  the  generations  of  man, 
is  still  a  greater  principle,  conveying  the  lesson  to  be  a  man 
and  to  recognize  under  all  conditions,  all  men  as  equals  and 
peers" — the  men  like  Hillel,  Akiba,  and  Ben  Soma,  who 
taught  such  lessons,  are  the  props  and  pillars  of  Judaism,  and 
we  must  well  take  to  heart  their  words.  Judaism,  I  repeat, 
did  nor  enter  into  this  world  to  simply  present  to  it  a  new  idea 
of  God,  but  to  illumine  and  ennoble  all  human  relations  and 


54  Judaism  and  Its  History 

to  teach  the  proper  recognition  and  estimate  of  man.  But 
just  with  regard  to  the  relation  between  man  and  man  it  is 
so  much  the  more  incidental  that  the  idea  must  at  first  appear 
with  limitations,  must  accommodate  itself  to  existing  con- 
ditions, if  it  is  to  have  any  success.  An  individual,  if  he 
stands  separated  from  his  fellow-men  by  his  eminence,  does 
not  share  their  lives,  takes  no  part  in  their  endeavors,  will  be 
without  influence  and  will  labor  without  effect,  however 
superior  he  may  be;  men  may  look  up  to  him  with  reverence, 
but  they  will  not  be  influenced  by  him.  If  a  man  wants  his 
work  to  be  effective,  he  must  enter  into  the  existing  con- 
ditions; there  must  be  mutual  accommodation.  Of  course, 
on  the  point  of  the  idea  of  God,  there  is  no  compromise,  no 
accommodation  possible;  there  can  be  no  agreement  between 
the  Pure  Spirit  and  Corporeality;  where  the  fundamental 
principle  is  at  stake,  Judaism  could  not  choose  half-way 
measures,  the  opposition  had  to  be  contended  against  with 
unswerving  determination.  Not  so,  concerning  the  relations 
between  men;  there  the  idea  may,  even  must,  perform  its 
work  of  education  and  transformation  by  the  process  of 
gradual  solution  until  the  hard  shell  crumbles  and  falls  off. 
The  nations  of  Antiquity  believed  that  the  state  could 
hardly  exist  without  slavery  being  firmly  established  within 
it  as  irrefutable  right.  A  free  citizen  should  do  no  labor, 
that  was  left  to  the  slave;  the  slave  was  the  property  of  his 
master,  a  chattel,  a  mere  thing  completely  subject  to  the 
pleasure  of  his  owner.  Judaism  enters  with  the  idea  that 
every  man  is  called  to  labor:  God  places  the  first  man  into 
paradise,  the  Garden  of  Eden,  but  even  there,  to  work  it  and 
keep  it.  Yet,  man  soon  enters  into  more  prosaic  conditions 
and  is  told :  "In  the  sweat  of  thy  face  shalt  thou  eat  bread." 
But  all  men  are  created  in  divine  image,  not  the  forefather  of 
one  nation  or  another  one  only,  but  the  progenitor  of  all,  and 
from  him  the  whole  human  race  has  descended,  endowed  with 
equal  rights.  Of  course,  the  complete  abolition,  the  annihila- 
tion of  slavery  by  Judaism,  at  its  first  entrance  into  the  world, 
would  have  been  in  direct  conflict  with  nature  and  the  his- 
torical development  of  human  relations;  it  would  have  proved 


Nationality,  Slavery,  Woman's  Position  55 

an  undertaking  without  the  intended  salutary  results  either 
for  the  people  or  for  mankind  who  can  be  gradually  educated 
but  not  transformed  at  one  stroke.  Hence,  slavery  was  not 
entirely  abolished,  but  it  really  existed  only  in  name  without 
its  essential  substance;  the  new  wine  which,  poured  into  the 
old  vessel,  must  burst  it  in  time.  Among  the  race,  within  the 
people  itself,  real  slavery  was  out  of  the  question ;  for  the  slave 
served  only  six  years,  or  regained  his  freedom  even  sooner, 
when  the  year  of  jubilee  arrived;  he  then  returned  to  his 
former  civil  conditions,  of  fully  equal  standing  and  rights 
with  his  brethren.  But  the  slavery  of  aliens,  for  that  was 
tolerated — how  were  alien  slaves  treated?  The  smallest 
injury  to  the  body  of  a  slave,  smiting  out  his  tooth,  was  not 
regarded  as  a  mere  blemish  caused  by  the  owner  in  his  prop- 
erty; no,  the  slave  was  free.  And  the  killing  of  a  slave  was 
punished,  even  if  done  by  the  master.  And  what  beautiful 
precept  is  this,  removing  the  very  sting  of  stings  of  slavery: 
"Thou  shalt  not  deliver  unto  his  master  the  slave  that  is 
escaped  from  him  unto  thee :  he  shall  dwell  with  thee  in  thy 
cities  which  he  may  choose.     Do  not  deceive  him.** 

With  those  words  a  problem  was  solved  thousands  of 
years  ago,  which  in  our  day  left  its  bloody  traces  on  a  whole 
continent,  and  came  near  rending  it  in  twain.  And  yet,  the 
inhabitants  of  that  country  are  professors  of  the  dominant 
religion,  some  of  whom  cleave  to  that  branch  which  claims  to 
be  the  sole  and  only  saving  Church,  and  others  cling  to  the 
form  of  tenacious  puritanism,  and  both  with  the  missionary 
fever  of  making  converts.  The  fight  had  in  its  beginning 
nothing  to  do  with  the  nature  of  slavery,  whether  or  not  it 
should  be  permitted  to  exist;  one  section  had  repudiated  it 
for  itself,  but  had  hitherto  found  it  altogether  right  to  pre- 
serve it  as  a  constitutional  institution  in  the  other.  The 
whole  question  was  mainly  narrowed  down  to  this:  whether 
a  slave  who  had  fled  into  the  Free  States  must  be  delivered 
to  his  master,  whether  it  was  not  theft  to  allow  him  to  remain 
away  from  his  master;  whether,  in  that  case,  rights  were  not 
violated  and  the  very  idea  of  justice  shaken.  That  question 
of  a  punctilious  conscientiousness  was  settled  by  Judaism 


56  Judaism  and  Its  History 

three  thousand  years  ago;  and  when  Judaism  shall  have  pre- 
vailed, when  its  spirit  shall  animate  all  men,  when  the  spirit 
proceeding  from  it,  undiluted  and  in  full,  shall  have  spread 
everywhere,  then  that  question  will  be  finally  decided. 
Truth  and  real  right,  humanity  and  recognition  of  the  human 
dignity  of  every  individual  will  then,  and  only  then,  prevail 
over  that  sham- justice  which  boasts  the  more  insolently,  the 
shallower  it  is  itself. 

The  regard  in  which  domestic  life  is  held  by  a  nation  is  of 
still  higher  moment.  A  dark  shadow  rests  on  the  Greek 
nation,  otherwise  so  finely  gifted  and  beautifully  developed, 
that  the  sanctity  of  matrimonial  life  comes  so  little  to  the 
front,  that  the  unity  of  the  family  finds  so  little  expression; 
the  worth  of  woman  according  to  her  true  character  has  not 
been  properly  appreciated  in  Hellenism.  How  different  that 
is  in  Judaism!  At  the  very  beginning  we  find  the  idea 
expressed:  A  man  leaveth  his  father  and  his  mother,  and 
cleaveth  unto  his  wife,  and  they  shall  be  one  flesh — an  essen- 
tial unity.  The  reverence  due  to  parents,  however  diligently 
taught,  however  fervently  cultivated,  is  secondary  to  that 
ardent  attachment  that  should  bind  husband  and  wife 
together  in  domestic  life.  The  wife  shall  follow  her  husband: 
"To  thy  husband  is  thy  desire,  though  he  rule  over  thee," 
yet  in  full  equality;  he  joins  himself  to  his  wife,  they  become 
one  being,  one  house. 

And  what  noble  pictures  of  woman  we  find  throughout  the 
Jewish  literature!  What  noble  relation  within  the  families 
— simple,  unpretending,  yet  great  and  heart-refreshing! 
The  wives  of  the  patriarchs  occupy  almost  the  same  position 
with  their  husbands.  Later  generations  regard  them  both 
alike.  And  what  a  picture  of  life  is  presented  to  us  when,  for 
instance,  we  contemplate  Rebekah  as  at  first  she  appears  in 
the  unrestraint  of  maiden  innocence,  friendly  and  kind- 
hearted  toward  the  stranger,  readily  complying  with  his 
request  to  give  him  water  to  drink,  and  caring  even  for  his 
camels.  She  steps  with  him  into  the  house  of  her  folks,  and 
behold !  he  has  been  sent  hither  by  a  highly  respected  kinsman 
from  a  distant  land  to  ask  for  the  daughter.     Rebekah  is 


Nationality,  Slavery,  Woman's  Position  57 

asked;  free  choice  is  left  to  her — "Wilt  thou  go  with  this 
man?'*  Her  heart  tells  her  that  yonder  is  the  place  where 
she  will  attain  full  development  and  she  replies,  "I  will  go." 
She  starts  upon  her  journey;  without  restraint  she  looks  all 
around;  all  at  once  she  observes  the  man  to  whom  she  is 
destined  to  be  a  companion  for  life  and  she  asks,  *'What  man 
is  this  that  walketh  in  the  field  to  meet  us?"  The  servant 
replies,  *'It  is  the  son  of  my  master."  Maidenly  blushes 
mantle  her  face,  and  she  covers  herself  with  a  veil.  "He 
brought  her  into  his  mother's  tent,  and  he  loved  her."  Jacob 
takes  his  wife,  Rachel,  home;  he  had  served  for  her  seven 
years,  "and  they  seemed  unto  him  but  a  few  days,  for  the 
love  he  had  to  her."  Farther  on,  we  read  the  history  of  the 
great  Liberator;  his  infancy  is  beset  by  great  dangers.  Moses 
was  born  when  dark  clouds  hovered  above  Israel.  They  put 
him  in  an  ark  of  bulrushes  and  lay  it  among  the  flags  by  the 
river's  brink;  his  sister  Miriam  cannot  endure  remaining  at 
home ;  she  hurries  near  to  the  place,  to  know  what  would  be 
done  to  him.  The  king's  daughter  comes  down  to  wash  her- 
self, she  notices  the  ark,  opens  it  and  sees  the  child.  The  girl, 
generally  timid  and  embarrassed,  but  courageous  now  when 
her  brother's  life  is  in  the  balance,  steps  out  and  asks,  "Shall 
I  go  and  call  thee  a  nurse  of  the  Hebrew  women?"  We  do 
not  find  it  strange  that  Miriam  who,  while  young,  exhibited 
such  devoted  courage,  appeared  later  as  prophetess.  And 
our  ancient  teachers  say  of  her  indeed:  "Miriam  was  for 
Israel  like  a  fresh  fountain  whence  refreshing  waters  pour 
forth" — she  had  glowing  enthusiasm  for  truth,  joined  with 
the  devotion  of  a  woman's  heart.  And  again  our  ancient 
teachers  say  with  profound  insight:  "Through  the  merits  of 
their  women,  the  Israelites  were  delivered  from  Egypt." 
The  men  were  given  over  to  oppression,  they  were  forced  to 
hard  labor.  Who  guarded  their  homes,  who  attended  to  the 
morals  of  their  children,  who  watched  over  the  domestic 
hearth,  who  held  up  the  standard  of  purity  and  chastity?  It 
was  the  mothers  in  Israel  who  attended  to  those  matters,  it 
was  their  work  that  Israel  was  made  worthy  of  deliverance 
from  the  dangers  that  surrounded  them.    We  proceed  still 


58  Judaism  and  Its  History 

farther,  we  enter  upon  the  period  which  appears  to  be  a  dim, 
confused  age  of  heroes,  the  time  of  the  Judges  when  the  loose 
tie  of  the  tribes  was  dissolving  and  their  union  was  to  all 
appearances  breaking  up.  Now  in  one  place,  then  in  another, 
a  Judge  appeared,  a  light  was  started;  and  again  a  beautiful 
figure  rises  before  us,  Deborah  the  prophetess  and  Judge,  a 
brave  and  courageous  woman,  an  enthusiastic  leader,  and  yet 
fully  conscious  of  her  womanhood.  She  does  not  want  to  go 
into  battle,  amazon-like,  and  says  to  Barak,  "It  will  not  be 
unto  thy  honor  that  thou  shalt  gain  the  victory  through  the 
hand  of  a  woman."  But  since  he  will  not  undertake  to  fight 
without  her,  she  consents  to  go  with  him,  and  gains  the 
victory ;  and  afterwards  she  announces  it  in  a  song,  chastising 
and  praising  like  a  true  prophetess  of  God.  And  later,  after 
that  period,  when  matters  appear  as  settling  down  into  more 
tranquil  conditions,  at  the  very  threshold  of  this  new  epoch, 
we  meet  again  with  a  woman  who  demands  our  reverence;  it 
is  Hannah,  the  mother  of  Samuel.  With  the  yearning  of  a 
genuine  woman  who  laments  that  children  are  denied  her  and 
fervently,  from  the  very  bottom  of  her  heart,  she  prays  to 
her  God,  "for  I  am  a  woman  of  a  sorrowful  spirit."  And 
Elkanah,  her  husband,  comforts  her:  "  Hannah,  why  weepest 
thou?  Am  I  not  better  to  thee  than  ten  sons?"  What  pro- 
found affection  those  few  words  express!  And  Ruth — ^what 
a  lovely  picture!  A  Judean  has  emigrated  into  a  foreign  land 
where  his  two  sons  get  them  wives.  The  man  dies,  and  both 
sons  also  pass  away  without  leaving  children.  The  mother, 
Naomi,  is  returning  to  her  native  country  and  the  second 
daughter-in-law — the  other  one  is  too  much  a  Moabite  to  go 
with  her  and  turns  back  at  the  last  moment — Ruth,  goes  with 
Naomi,  saying,  "Entreat  me  not  to  leave  thee,  or  to  return 
from  following  after  thee:  for  whither  thou  goest  I  will  go, 
and  where  thou  lodgest,  I  will  lodge;  thy  people  shall  be  my 
people,  and  thy  God  my  God;"  and  she  follows  her  as  an 
obedient  child,  remains  her  daughter,  lovingly  cares  for  her 
and  is  her  devoted  companion — is  she  not  worthy  to  be  the 
ancestress  of  David? 

All  that  is  told  with  childlike  simplicity,  without  embellish- 


Nationality,  Slavery,  Woman's  Position  59 

ing  pomp,  because  it  is  part  of  the  very  nature  of  Israel,  and 
it  must  come  to  the  surface,  although  we  often  see  it  come  in 
only  as  insignificant  shading  in  the  picture.  Can  you  then 
wonder  that  among  that  people — a  rare  example  in  Antiquity 
— woman  was  not  treated  with  disregard,  can  we  wonder  that 
the  scanty  remains  of  the  literature  of  that  people,  the  whole 
compendium  of  which  is  almost  exclusively  devoted  to 
religious  life  and  historical  narrative,  nevertheless  contains  a 
booklet  which  is  designated  as  the  Song  of  Love?  At  a  time 
when  the  pressure  from  without  weighed  them  down,  when 
not  the  consecration  of  the  senses,  but  their  suppression,  when 
not  the  glorification  of  natural  life,  but  its  deadening,  were 
regarded  as  piety,  it  was  impossible  to  conceive  that  the  little 
book,  taken  in  its  plain,  natural  meaning,  was  intended  to 
extol  a  fine,  pure  love.  Granted  even  that  it  contained  also 
a  so-called  deeper  meaning,  this  much  is  at  all  events  certain : 
a  picture  must  be  true  if  it  is  to  mirror  a  higher  relation. 
However — as  a  recent  ingenious  scholar  observes — ^when  the 
poet  was  singing,  the  language  had  not  yet  died  the  agonizing 
death  of  its  holiness;  fresh,  natural  vitality  coursed  through 
it  then,  and  the  song  that  glorifies  love  flowed  quick  and  alive 
from  the  poet's  heart.  And  as  a  consequence,  we  find  in  the 
booklet  many  a  sensual  embellishment.  But  with  what 
depth  is  the  higher,  nobler  nature  of  love  depicted,  what 
fervor  do  even  these  few  lines  express:  "I  sleep,  but  my 
heart  is  awake."  A  world  of  feeling  is  shown,  and  we  may 
well  say  without  further  commenting  on  its  contents,  that 
whoever  reads  the  little  book  with  a  pure  mind  will  find  that 
profound  emotions  are  described  in  it  in  noble  expression. 

It  is  but  natural  that  a  later  poet  also  indulges  in  the  con- 
sideration of  the  virtuous  woman,  and  the  conclusion  of  his 
proverbs  and  lessons  of  wisdom  is  devoted  to  her  glorification. 
''Who  can  find  a  virtuous  woman?  for  her  price  is  far  above 
pearls.'*  *'Who  can  find  her?"  does  not  mean  that  she  is 
rare;  no,  he  describes  her  in  full,  and  he  that  has  found  her 
has  obtained  a  precious  treasure.  And  he  concludes  with, 
*'Her  children  arise  and  call  her  blessed,  her  husband  also, 
and  he  praiseth  her.     Favor  is  deceitful  and  beauty  evanes- 


60  Judaism  and  Its  History 

cent,  but  a  God-fearing  woman,  she  shall  be  praised."  Only 
the  subtle,  melancholy  Ecclesiastes  who  can  find  hardly  one 
tolerable  man  among  thousands,  can  not  find  in  a  thousand 
women  one  that  is  not  treacherous  and  cunning.  But  that 
is  not  the  general  view  running  through  the  literature  of 
Judaism,  and  if  isolated  Oriental  opinion  mingles  in,  the  pure 
estimation  of  woman,  the  moral  eminence  of  matrimonial  life, 
remain  the  fundamental  principle. 

Judaism  teaches  the  marriage  of  one  wife  to  one  man, 
monogamy.  Although  exceptions  are  now  and  then  met 
with,  they  are  simply  exceptions  which  are  explained  by  the 
fact  that  the  tendency  could  not  at  once  take  full  effect  by 
formulating  a  law  at  a  time  when  the  opposite  practice  ruled 
among  the  nations  all  around;  but  monogamy  alone  is  in 
agreement  with  the  fundamental  principle  of  Judaism,  and 
with  thorough  union  of  husband  and  wife.  It  is  therefore 
but  natural  that  in  later  times,  when  external  influences 
became  different,  a  teacher  appeared  in  Europe  who  put  the 
ban  on  every  one  that  should  violate  the  natural  law  of 
Judaism.  And  even  in  such  countries  where  polygamy  is  the 
rule,  Judaism  had  repudiated  it,  and  though  not  prohibited 
there  by  a  distinct  law,  practice,  which  is  always  the  living 
spirit  in  Judaism,  had  ruled  it  out  long  ago,  even  if  legally 
permissible.  By  such  fruits  Judaism  is  known,  and  a  noble 
family  life  has  at  all  times  been  cultivated  in  Israel.  Of 
course,  courts  of  love,  love's  tournaments,  and  playing  at  love, 
were  unknown  to  Judaism,  just  as  it  was  unable  to  fathom 
the  mystery  of  unconscious  virginity  coupled  with  the  feelings 
of  a  mother.  Healthful  and  energetic,  pure  and  fresh  was  the 
clear  fountain  flowing  forth  from  their  homes  over  all  their 
relations  in  life;  pure  domestic  life  has  at  all  times  kept  Israel 
fresh  and  vigorous.  Having  supported  them  during  the  days 
of  oppression,  it  will  not  disappear  from  among  them  in  better 
times,  and  the  exclamation  of  Balaam  at  the  sight  of  Israel 
encamped  according  to  its  tribes  will  ever  remain  true: 
"How  beautiful  are  thy  tents,  O  Jacob,  thy  habitations,  O 
Israel!" 


V. 

Sacrificial  Service  and  Priesthood. 
Divided  Nationality. 

The  conception  of  Deity  by  a  nation  is  also  the  gauge  for 
its  views  of  morality,  and  vice  versa.  The  higher  or  lower 
moral  culture  of  a  people  is  an  infallible  index  of  its  more  or 
less  enlightened  religious  convictions.  As  the  savage  indi- 
vidual, so  also  does  an  uncivilized  people,  living  in  a  state  of 
nature,  respect  and  honor  superior  force  only.  The  power 
which  it  exercises  over  others  or  which  others  can  enforce 
against  it,  affords  the  measure  of  the  estimation  with  which 
it  claims,  or  in  which  it  holds  others.  Neither  justice  nor 
moral  worth  nor  purity  of  moral  sentiment  is  of  any  value  in 
its  eye,  but  pre-eminently  and  essentially,  brute  force,  worldly 
power.  A  man  without  education  and  culture,  just  as  an 
uncivilized  people,  bows  before  his  superior  who  can  make 
him  or  it  feel  his  power;  and  on  the  other  hand,  they  are  rude 
and  tyrannical  towards  their  inferiors.  A  people  which  as 
yet  has  but  a  religious  instinct  and  has  not  yet  worked  its 
way  towards  a  clear  conception  of  religion,  which  is  not  yet 
permeated  by  a  higher  idea,  recognizes  in  God  at  first  a 
mighty  being  and  fears  the  power  that  shows  the  ability  to 
crush  it.  It  bows  before  that  power  just  as  it  bows  before  a 
man  of  superior  force,  but  on  the  other  hand,  its  treatment 
of  others  whom  it  regards  as  its  subordinates  shows  what  low 
position  it  occupies  with  regard  to  morality.  Therefore,  the 
very  views  concerning  slavery  and  the  treatment  of  the 
weaker  sex,  is  a  true  gauge  for  the  high  or  low  plane  of  their 
religious  ideas.  Judaism — as  we  have  shown  by  the  pre- 
ceding considerations — establishes  itself  as  a  religion  that 
adores  God  as  the  Holy  One,  as  the  ideal  of  moral  purity,  by 
the  fact  that  it  invariably  emphasizes  moral  worth  also  in  its 


62  Judaism  and  Its  History 

human  relations,  that  it  does  not  recognize  the  mightier  ones 
as  possessing  exclusive  rights,  but  grants  them  power  only  so 
far  as  they  are  justly  entitled  thereto.  Justice,  the  pure, 
moral  relation  between  man  and  man,  is  its  highest  con- 
sideration, the  gauge  wherewith  to  measure  the  conditions. 
That  difference  in  the  plane  of  culture  occupied  by  various 
nations  must  eminently  manifest  itself  in  their  divine  worship, 
in  the  manner  in  which  God  is  approached  it  is  bound  to 
show,  whether  men  have  a  presentiment  of  God  only  as  a 
higher  power,  whether  they  tremble  before  Him  and  seek  to 
conciliate  Him,  or  whether  they  worship  Him  as  the  Holy 
One,  look  up  to  Him  as  the  pattern  of  highest  morality,  the 
purest  expression  of  mercy  and  benevolence.  Wherever, 
above  all,  only  the  power  of  God  is  recognized,  the  tendency 
predominates  of  courting  His  favor,  men  will  bow  before  Him 
that  He  may  not  pour  His  wrath  upon  them ;  they  will  try  by 
some  act  or  other  to  win  His  good  graces,  to  procure  His  kind 
consideration,  to  ward  off  His  displeasure  by  offering  to  Him 
gifts  and  undergoing  privations.  That  is  the  origin  of 
sacrificial  worship.  Sacrifice  expresses  the  endeavor  to  win 
favor  or  soften  the  possible  wrath  of  God,  or  at  least  to  show 
Him  in  what  deep  subjection  one  is  to  Him,  by  offering  to 
Him  and  depriving  oneself  of  something,  be  it  even  the 
dearest  object,  if  it  may  be  pleasing  in  His  sight.  The 
crudest  manifestation  of  such  a  feeling  exhibited  at  the  lowest 
stage  of  religious  life  is  human  sacrifice,  especially  the  sacrifice 
of  those  nearest  and  dearest  to  us.  Rude  heathenism  sacri- 
ficed its  children  to  the  gods.  The  dearest  and  most  priceless 
treasure — that  is  the  meaning  of  such  sacrifice — I  offer  unto 
my  God,  and  He  will  be  pleased  therewith  because  I  do  not 
hesitate  to  deaden  every  feeling  and  emotion  within  me  and 
to  give  up  to  His  pleasure  the  dearest  treasure  I  possess. 
That  lowest  religious  sentiment  is  a  complete  misconception 
of  the  Divine  Being,  that  He  is  to  be  conciliated  by  slavish 
self-degradation  and  self-imposed  cruelty;  it  is  fear  of  the 
cruel  and  arbitrary  element  as  Deity,  and  cruelty  and  arbi- 
trariness in  man  is  nurtured  by  it.  That  was  the  religion  all 
around  Israel,  the  worship  of  God  or  gods  among  those  nations 


Sacrificial  Service  and  Priesthood  63 

that  now  and  then  ruled  over  Israel  and  were  at  all  times  in 
such  close  contact  with  Israel,  that  the  sentiment  necessarily 
became  known  to  the  people  and  here  and  there  had  its 
influence.  The  worship  of  Moloch  is  well  known  to  have  been 
one  that  demanded  human  sacrifices;  to  burn  one's  own 
children  was  the  terrible  sacrificial  service  designated  as  the 
worship  of  God. 

Judaism  carried  on  an  energetic  war  against  that  degrada- 
tion of  the  Divine  Being;  for  that  kind  of  sacrificial  service, 
it  knows  no  mercy.  It  is  true,  traces  of  it  are  imprinted  also 
in  its  history;  it  influenced  weak  minds  that  believed  to 
perceive  in  the  self-suppression  of  the  tenderest  emotions  an 
act  of  devotion  to  God;  but  with  what  indignation  do  the 
prophets  inveigh  against  that  eruption  of  the  most  brutal 
heathenism!  At  its  very  threshold,  Judaism  makes  the 
individual  patriarch  go  through  that  struggle  in  his  mind  and 
gain  a  glorious  victory.  "£ZoMm  tempted  Abraham."  Various 
names  of  God  are  used  in  Holy  Writ,  and  our  ancient  teachers 
give  us  an  ingenious  explanation:  "Elohim"  represents 
God  as  the  Mighty  One,  the  Rigorous  One,  which  attribute  is 
also  reverenced  in  God,  as  the  other  nations  likewise  recognize 
him  in  some  manner,  but  the  other  name,  **He  is" — the 
Ineffable,  as  we  have  become  acquainted  with  it — the  Eter- 
nally Existent,  underlying  all  earthly  and  spiritual  existence, 
"the  God  of  the  spirits  for  all  flesh,"  is  the  God  of  mercy,  of 
benevolence,  of  ardent  love  and  kindness  toward  man. 
Elohim  tempted  Abraham.  The  old  conception  of  God,  as  it 
then  predominated,  was  uppermost  also  in  the  mind  of 
Abraham,  the  recognition  of  that  Divine  Power  has  posses- 
sion of  him  to  such  a  degree  that  he  wants  to  show  himself  as 
its  obedient  servant.  "Offer  thine  only  son,  whom  thou 
lovest!"  What  greater  treasure  hast  thou  acquired,  where- 
with canst  thou  better  manifest  thy  submissiveness?  He  is 
ready  for  the  sacrifice,  everything  is  prepared  for  its  consum- 
mation; then  a  messenger  of  the  God  "He  is"  calls  from 
heaven:  "Lay  not  thy  hand  upon  the  lad!"  The  higher 
knowledge  of  God  awakens  in  him:  God  is  mighty,  but  is 
He  not  also  all-kind?    God  is  all-powerful,  but  is  that  power 


64  Judaism  and  Its  History 

a  tyrannical  one?  Does  it  demand  of  man  that  he  should 
not  ennoble  his  feelings,  but  that,  on  the  contrary,  he  should 
deaden  them?  Is  it  worship  of  God  to  mutilate  myself,  or  to 
mutilate  or  immolate  the  only  child  I  call  my  own?  No, 
"Lay  not  thy  hand  upon  the  lad" — that  is  the  true  worship 
of  the  All-merciful  one,  and  Abraham  did  not  sacrifice  his 
child.  Not  his  readiness  to  offer  that  sacrifice  constitutes  the 
true  piety  of  Abraham,  but  his  omission  of  it;  not  the  will  of 
offering  his  son,  but  the  deed  of  preserving  him;  not  that  he 
shows  blind  submission  to  the  Divine  Power  by  tearing  his 
child  from  his  heart,  but  that  he  recognizes  God  in  His  sublime 
and  true  nature,  constitutes  his  true,  enlightened  piety. 
Therefore  it  is  not  proper  to  always  point  to  Abraham's 
willingness  to  offer  his  son  as  an  act  of  extreme  piety — he  was 
and  is  an  example  of  piety  because  he  omitted  that  sacrifice. 

Thus  we  find  at  the  very  outset  the  picture  of  that  struggle, 
together  with  the  victory  of  pure  moral  conviction,  and  that 
victory  runs  through  the  whole  of  Judaism.  The  service  of 
Moloch  is  detested  as  an  abomination  which  God  abhors, 
which  deeply  degrades  men ;  and  whenever  a  horrible  place  is 
to  be  mentioned,  the  Valley  of  Hinnom  is  named,  the  location 
where  sacrifices  were  offered  to  Moloch.  "Ge  Hinnom,^*  the 
Valley  of  Hinnom,  Gehinnom,  Gehenna,  later  became  the 
designation  of  the  place  where  all  evil  is  concentrated,  where 
the  severest  punishment  is  dealt  out,  where  damnation  dwells; 
in  one  word,  it  became  the  name  for  hell.  Human  sacrifice 
was  thus  most  energetically  contended  against  in  Judaism; 
no  compromise  was  possible  on  that  point. 

But  animal  sacrifice  is  no  less  the  expression  of  a  low 
religious  sentiment.  Animal  sacrifice,  too,  has  for  its  object 
the  winning  of  favor  by  giving  up  some  property  without 
tending  to  moral  reform  and  furthering  moral  ennoblement. 
Nor  did  animal  sacrifice  spring  from  the  soil  of  Judaism,  it 
was  tolerated,  and  only  tolerated ;  it  was  continually  inveighed 
against  by  Israel's  best  and  noblest  men,  the  prophets,  who 
point  out  its  low  degree  in  the  most  emphatic  terms.  The 
prophet  Micah  says:  "Wherewith  shall  I  come  before  God, 
bow  myself  before  the  High  God?    Shall  I  come  before  Him 


Sacrificial  Service  and  Priesthood  65 

with  burnt  offerings,  with  calves  of  a  year  old  ?  Will  the  Lord 
be  pleased  with  thousands  of  rams,  with  ten  thousands  of 
rivers  of  oil?  Shall  I  give  my  first-born  for  my  transgression, 
the  fruit  of  my  body  for  the  sin  of  my  soul?  He  hath  showed 
thee,  O  man,  what  is  good,  and  what  doth  God  require  of 
thee  but  to  do  justly  and  to  love  mercy  and  to  walk  humbly 
with  thy  God?'*  That  is  the  manifesto  of  prophetism  against 
sacrifice,  and  that  manifesto  is  often  repeated,  is  authenticated 
everywhere  in  the  same  manner,  though  differently  worded. 
'"To  what  purpose,*  saith  the  Lord,  *is  the  multitude  of  your 
sacrifices  unto  me,  I  am  full  of  the  burnt  offerings  of  rams  and 
the  fat  of  fed  beasts,  I  delight  not  in  the  blood  of  bullocks 
or  of  lambs  or  of  he-goats'."  "Wilt  thou  offer  sacrifices  unto 
me,"  says  the  psalmist,  "am  I  hungry?  If  I  were  hungry,  need 
I  tell  thee?  Is  not  the  cattle  upon  a  thousand  hills  mine?" 
Away  with  sacrifice! — And  Jeremiah  pronounces  with  dry 
soberness  and  really  with  almost  surprising  directness:  "I 
spake  not  unto  your  fathers,  saith  the  Lord,  nor  commanded 
them  when  I  brought  them  out  of  the  land  of  Egypt  concern- 
ing burnt  offerings  or  sacrifices."  More  clearly  and  emphatic- 
ally, it  cannot  be  expressed.  Yet,  the  institution  of  sacrifi- 
cial service  was  so  deeply  rooted  in  the  universal  conviction, 
was  to  such  an  extent  the  expression  corresponding  to  the 
natural  religious  promptings,  that  it  made  its  way  also  into 
Israel.  And  as  everything  corporeal  occupies  space,  whereas 
the  spiritual,  being  in  mind  and  heart,  is  not  visible  in  space, 
the  regulations  and  laws  concerning  sacrifices  may,  of  course, 
occupy  a  very  great  space;  but  nevertheless  it  is  but  the 
expression  of  something  tolerated.  And  if  you  desire  another 
strong  proof  of  that,  examine  the  Repetition  of  the  Law,  in 
Deuteronomy,  and  notice  how  the  provisions  concerning  sac- 
rifices have  dwindled  down,  are  merely  indicated  as  something 
customary,  but  are  not  elaborated  with  the  extensiveness 
which  such  an  important  branch  of  divine  worship,  if  it  were 
a  direct  command,  could  properly  claim.  Sacrifice  was  a 
tolerated  institution  in  Judaism,  and  speedily  it  vanished 
away.  During  the  period  of  the  Second  Temple,  numerous 
Houses  of  Prayer  arose  as  a  victorious  power,  rivals  of  the 


66  Judaism  and  Its  History 

Temple  at  Jerusalem,  where  sacrifice  was  still  retained  and 
which  as  a  symbol  of  unity  of  the  Commonwealth,  preserved 
its  significance  while  those  Houses  of  Worship  actually  rose 
above  that  Temple  in  spiritual  importance.  And  when  the 
latter  was  destroyed,  sacrificial  service  also  was  buried 
beneath  its  ruins.  We  have  before  emphasized  the  idea  that 
whatever  is  truly  fundamental  in  a  religion  can  not  be  sepa- 
rated from  it,  however  unpropitious  the  circumstances  sur- 
rounding it  may  be:  the  very  spirit  contends  against  the 
separation,  and  seeks  the  preservation  of  the  matter;  if  it  can 
not  be  preserved  in  the  old  form,  transformation  is  resorted 
to.  It  is  as  though  the  whole  foundation  were  injured; 
hence  this  dilemma  presents  itself:  either  complete  dissolution 
or  preservation  with  proper  natural  expression.  When  pagan- 
ism perished  in  its  forms,  its  very  spiritual  foundation  fell 
with  it.  If  the  sacrificial  idea  had  been  a  necessary  element  in 
Judaism,  sacrificial  service  would  certainly  have  outlived  the 
destruction  of  the  Temple,  and  attempts  were  made  to  con- 
tinue it.  But  the  very  idea  had  become  completely  exhausted. 
Sacrifice  had  lost  its  hold  upon  the  hearts  and  minds  of  the 
people;  it  was  an  inherited  custom,  an  institution  upon  which 
some  political  offices  were  based,  upon  which  the  authority 
of  so  many  leaders  and  their  employees  rested,  and  which, 
therefore,  could  not  have  been  overthrown  all  at  once.  But  as 
soon  as  the  storm  burst  upon  the  Commonwealth,  the  disrooted 
tree  became  a  sport  for  the  winds,  and  sacrifice  is  vanished 
from  Israel,  and  will  forever  remain  vanished.  Every  estab- 
lishment of  religion  on  the  basis  of  sacrificial  worship,  of  a  sac- 
rifice that  was  offered  once  upon  a  time,  be  it  animal,  human, 
or  even  divine,  every  longing,  retrospective  glance  at  the 
ancient  sacrifices  as  being  manifestation  of  a  fuller  and  loftier 
life,  every  assertion  that  sacrificial  service  had  vanished  for  the 
present  and  must  therefore  be  represented  by  a  certain  prayer 
— every  such  acknowledgment  attributing  spirituality  to  sac- 
rifice is  a  relapse  into  heathenism.  Together  with  the  animal 
which  is  offered  up  as  a  sacrifice  unto  God,  the  loftier  relig- 
ious knowledge  is  immolated;  from  the  ashes,  with  the  smoke 
of  the  sacrificial  animal  curling  towards  heaven,  rises  an  idol. 


Sacrificial  Service  and  Priesthood  67 

Sacrificial  worship,  wherever  it  is  practiced,  requires  also 
an  especial  method  of  operation.  It  demands  special  em- 
ployees for  its  management;  there  must  be  specially  designated 
persons  who  understand  how  to  offer  the  sacrifices,  who  are 
consecrated  in  order  to  be  better  prepared  to  appear  before 
their  gods,  or  God.  The  worship  of  God  through  sacrifice  is 
the  mother  of  Priesthood ;  priests  are  necessary  as  officers  to 
conciliate  the  gods,  to  approach  them  in  an  appropriate 
manner.  Priesthood  in  its  connection  with  sacrifice,  is  not  a 
straight  growth  out  of  the  native  soil  of  Judaism.  Even  at  the 
outset,  before  the  Ten  Commandments  had  been  proclaimed, 
God  commanded  Moses  to  tell  the  people,  "Ye  shall  be  unto 
me  a  kingdom  of  priests,  and  a  holy  nation.  These  are  the 
words  which  thou  shalt  speak  unto  the  children  of  Israel." 
All  shall  be  priests!  In  the  religion  of  Judaism  there  is  no 
need  for  mediation  by  particular  persons,  every  one  shall  be 
his  own  priest,  his  own  mediator  between  himself  and  God. 
Priesthood  was  merely  tolerated  in  Judaism,  and  again  a  con- 
tinued war  against  it  runs  through  the  whole  history.  Tales 
of  the  discontent  against  their  priesthood,  both  in  the  first 
time  of  its  establishment,  and  at  later  periods,  are  not  isolated 
instances,  they  are  a  characteristic  element  of  the  national 
life  of  the  Jews.  On  the  one  hand,  the  want  of  it  exists;  the 
people  have  not  yet  passed  beyond  the  stage  of  sacrificial 
worship,  hence  there  must  be  priests;  but  since  they  have  to 
be  on  hand,  they  must  exhibit  special  purity,  must  not  be 
priests  of  idols,  but  priests  of  the  True  God,  so  that  they  might 
be  leaders  to  the  people  in  purity  of  morals  and  in  honest 
endeavor  of  self-improvement.  But,  after  all,  every  insti- 
tution which  arises  from  a  mere  yielding  to  human  weakness,  car- 
ries along  with  it  the  defects  of  its  low  origin.  The  priests  did  not 
come  up  to  that  standard  during  the  first  period  of  Judaism. 
The  prophets  continually  contended  against  the  priests. 
"The  priests  that  despise  my  name."  "Both  priests  and 
people,  all  are  alike  full  of  sin."  They  are  inveighed  against 
for  the  selfish  motives  that  they  joined  and  carried  out  along 
with  their  prominent  office.  Thus,  then,  priesthood  is  a 
tolerated  institution,  not  an  integral  part  of  Judaism.     When 


68  Judaism  and  Its  History 

idolatry  was  subdued  by  means  of  the  one  Temple,  and  those 
of  the  priestly  estate  who  belonged  to  that  Temple  gained 
greater  respect  thereby,  priesthood  was  highly  honored  for  a 
time,  so  that  after  the  return  from  the  Babylonish  captivity 
the  descendants  of  those  priests  became  also  rulers.  But 
they  preserved  their  authority  only  for  a  brief  period;  even 
then,  during  the  time  of  the  second  Temple,  they  did  not 
come  up  to  the  expectations  entertained  of  them.  Therefore 
again  a  struggle  was  carried  on  against  them  with  all  energy, 
and  again  we  read  in  one  of  the  later  books:  "God  hath 
given  unto  all  the  inheritance,  the  priesthood,  and  sanctifica- 
tion."  Equality  for  all!  And  again,  all  the  earlier  writings 
of  that  second  period  state  that  the  priests  had  not  proven 
true,  that  they  were  selfish,  poor  in  religious  knowledge.  As 
during  the  existence  of  the  first  Temple  alongside  of  the 
priests  of  lower  degree,  there  had  arisen  the  great  men  of 
God,  the  prophets,  men  who  performed  no  priestly  function, 
who  were  no  descendants  of  the  priestly  caste,  so  we  find 
during  the  period  of  the  second  Temple,  alongside  of  the 
priests,  the  teachers,  the  men  of  the  law  and  of  knowledge, 
men  who  rose  from  the  humblest  classes  of  the  people,  but 
were  permeated  by  the  spirit  of  God. 

Priesthood,  too,  fell  with  the  Temple,  and  though  isolated 
fragments  of  the  disintegrated  structure  remain,  although  cer- 
tain arrangements  connected  therewith  still  continue  a  feeble 
existence,  they  are  nothing  but  fragments  which  may  retain 
a  significance  as  reminiscences  of  Antiquity,  but  they  are  not 
in  line  or  touch  with  the  essence  of  Judaism,  or  true  Jewish 
piety. 

Thus  the  world-reforming  Idea  of  Judaism  manifests 
itself.  I  have  essayed  in  a  few  outlines,  to  present  to  you  its 
innate  power,  its  substance  as  well  as  several  of  its  important 
practical  manifestations.  The  world-reforming  and  world- 
moving  Idea  of  Judaism  naturally  required  for  its  practical 
introduction  a  ready  host  bearing  its  arms;  it  required  a 
numerous,  united  multitude  raising  high  the  banner  of  their 
idea,  ready  for  victory  or  death.  A  compact  nationality,  a 
thoroughly  united  community  was  necessary,  if  the  Idea 


Sacrificial  Service  and  Priesthood  69 

would  claim  recognition  as  a  legitimate  power.  Right  here 
enters  the  conflict  manifested  in  all  phenomena  of  history. 
The  idea  is  comprehensive,  but  it  requires  its  standard- 
bearers,  and  those  must  be  compactly  organized,  lest  they  be 
scattered.  The  Idea  of  Judaism  is  a  world-comprising  one,  but 
it  required  an  individual  nation  for  its  first  introduction  into 
the  world.  That  thereby  contradictions  arose,  that  universal 
humanity  and  nationality  came  into  conflict  with  each  other, 
we  have  already  endeavored  to  show  in  several  instances. 

But  another  thought  suggests  itself  in  that  connection. 
It  is  the  lot  of  all  culture-historic  nations  which  have  exercised 
a  profound  influence  upon  the  whole  world,  that  with  all  their 
spiritually  powerful  unity,  they  are  not  able  to  attain  to  a 
perfect  political  unity.  A  nation  that  has  not  such  a  brilliant 
mission  to  fulfill,  unites  more  closely  and  easily  for  the  per- 
formance of  the  task  allotted  to  it.  Every  nation  consists  of 
various  tribes,  but  the  more  cultured,  powerful  one  rises  above 
the  rest  and  gathers  them  under  its  sway,  and  unity  results. 
But  nations  permeated  by  a  more  profound  spirit,  borne  by  a 
mightier  idea  can  not  so  easily  arrive  at  unity.  Look  at  the 
Greek  people!  The  Doric,  the  Ionian,  the  Attic,  the  Lacede- 
monian tribes — all  of  the  Greek  type  and  character,  in  all  of 
them  the  power  of  the  Greek  spirit  crops  out — but  that  spirit 
was  too  vast  not  to  be  formed  in  different  expressions;  each 
tribe  had  its  own  clear-cut  peculiarity,  and  none  of  those 
peculiarities  would  suffer  itself  to  be  effaced  by  the  other  ones. 
The  Greek  people  did  not  attain  a  political  unity;  each  tribe 
would  preserve  its  own  distinctiveness.  Of  course,  a  unity  of 
spirit  did  exist  among  them;  and  that  spiritual  unity  was 
indeed  powerful  enough  to  resist  hostile  assaults.  History 
does  not  record  how  Persian  diplomats  might  have  regarded 
the  small  nation  with  silent  contempt,  and  many  a  statesman 
may  have  expressed  the  opinion  that  Hellas  was  but  a  geo- 
graphical term  comprising  but  individual  tribes  which  could 
be  easily  subdued.  But  the  powerful  Persian  Empire  stumbled 
against  that  geographical  term  and  had  a  great  fall  that 
came  near  breaking  it,  and  we  would  hardly  know  anything 
of  the  Persians  and  their  mighty  empire  if  the  same  Hellas 


70  Judaism  and  Its  History 

and  despised  and  enslaved  Judea  had  not  furnished  us  with 
information  about  them.  The  unity  of  the  Greek  people  was 
strong,  the  national  consciousness  was  its  living  tie  and 
bond,  yet  they  never  attained  to  a  really  compacted  political 
united  state.  Only  when  its  vital  energy  flagged  and  its 
peculiarity  began  to  vanish,  a  ruder  tribe,  the  Macedonian, 
came  to  the  surface,  forced  them  together  into  a  unit,  and 
spread  the  shallow  remnants  of  Grecian  culture  all  over  the 
world — but  it  was  no  longer  true  Greek  genius,  genuine 
Hellenism.  Yet,  for  all  that,  Hellenism  has  not  perished,  it 
revived  repeatedly  to  refresh  the  world;  its  spirit  did  not  die, 
although  the  nation  itself  perished  and  had  never  presented  a 
real  political  unity.  In  the  same  manner,  although  not  to 
the  same  extent,  the  Italian  states  of  the  Middle  Ages  appear 
in  history.  They  were  states  small  in  territory,  but  great  in 
their  characteristic  peculiarities  which  are  so  sharply  marked 
and  so  deeply  graven  into  the  culture  and  historic  develop- 
ment of  their  people  that  each  was  determined  to  preserve  its 
own  type,  and  thus  a  union  into  one  state  was  not  possible. 
Whether  Piedmont  is  destined  to  become  the  Italian  Mace- 
donian, the  future  will  show.  Does  Germany  present  the 
same  picture?  Does  she,  too,  occupy  a  culture-historic  posi- 
tion in  history?  And  is  each  one  of  her  races  for  that  reason 
intent  upon  preserving  its  independence  so  that  they  may 
never  attain  to  that  unity  which  they  crave  with  their  whole 
heart?  Is  the  German  nation  destined  not  to  become  a  greater 
state  but  a  great  mental  factor  in  mankind?  Well,  it  is  not 
the  worst  destiny  that  may  be  allotted  to  a  people,  though  it 
is  painful  and  sadly  grievous  to  the  patriot  who  desires  not  its 
mental  and  spiritual  importance  only,  but  also  its  full  direc- 
tive power. 

Be  that  as  it  may,  Israel  was  such  a  people.  Israel  too, 
had  an  Idea  which  went  beyond  its  national  existence,  and  for 
that  very  reason,  that  idea  assumed  different  forms  of  expres- 
sion in  the  several  tribes,  so  that  a  thorough  unity  of  their 
political  life  could  not  be  arrived  at.  The  ancient  history  of 
the  Jewish  people  has  reached  us  in  very  fragmentary  form, 
conceived  and  rendered  by  its  writers  from  their  several  and 


Sacrificial  Service  and  Priesthood  71 

individual  points  of  view  only;  a  great  part  presented  by  its 
conception  by  that  tribe  which,  in  the  end,  remained  the 
victor;  namely,  the  tribe  of  Judah.  Furthermore,  that 
history  is  always  written  from  the  point  of  view  as  to  whether 
the  people  were  sinful  or  not,  as  to  whether  the  kings  were 
devout  or  remiss.  Besides,  there  are,  in  the  history  of  a 
state  or  nation  many  other  factors ;  and  although  the  working 
out  of  the  true  conception  of  God  was  its  proper  task,  there 
was  also  a  more  general  history  of  the  Jewish  state  which  has 
come  down  to  us  in  fragments  only,  and  we  have  to  guess  at 
it  together  again  by  ourselves.  The  people  lived  in  tribes,  that 
the  whole  history  shows ;  each  individual  tribe  remained  rather 
independent  for  a  long  time;  the  tribes  joined  themselves 
together  into  several  unions.  Of  that  grouping,  we  have 
various  information:  a  grouping  into  four  divisions  repre- 
sented by  descent  from  four  mothers,  which  indicated  a 
certain  dividing  line  between  the  tribes,  and  marked  each 
division  as  belonging  together  by  itself.  Besides  that  divi- 
sion, we  find  another  grouping  of  the  tribes  as  they  were 
camped  in  the  desert,  three  invariably  march  under  the 
banner  of  one  chief  tribe,  but  upon  that  arrangement  into 
four  parts  we  are  also  informed  very  little.  On  the  other 
hand,  another  division  is  exhibited  as  decisive  from  the 
earliest  time.  I  say,  from  the  earliest  time,  for  it  is  a  very 
significant  remark  made  by  our  ancient  teachers:  "The  his- 
tory of  our  patriarchs,  the  first  founders  of  Israel,  is  of  great 
significance  for  the  history  of  later  times."  The  traits  which 
determine  the  history  of  the  later  time,  are  pointed  out. 
Now,  from  the  very  beginning,  Reuben,  Ephraim,  and  Judah, 
are  presented  as  the  chief  tribes. 

Reuben,  the  first-born,  who  has  the  legal  claim  of  pri- 
mogeniture which  is  not  acknowledged,  is  the  first  tribe  to 
settle  down,  to  acquire  territory,  and  thus  to  gain  importance 
beyond  the  other  tribes,  yet  fails  to  get  their  confidence. 
Reuben  claims  leadership,  he  seeks — so  it  is  told  of  the 
patriarch  Reuben,  and  it  forms  the  characteristics  of  the  tribe 
— to  take  possession  of  his  father's  concubine  and  thereby  to 
acquire  dominion.     With  rare  exceptions  in  the  most  ancient 


72  Judaism  and  Its  History 

times,  we  find  among  the  Jews  concubines  only  with  kings; 
whoever  took  possession  of  them  indicated  thereby  that  he 
claimed  the  dominion.  Therefore  the  prophet  Nathan  in  his 
sermon  to  David  on  account  of  his  misdoings  with  Bathsheba 
said  that  he  should  have  been  satisfied  that  God  had  given 
him  the  wives  of  his  former  master,  Saul.  When  Absalom 
sought  to  usurp  the  dominion  of  his  father  David,  his  cunning 
counsellor  Ahitophel  saith  to  him:  "Go  in  unto  thy  father's 
concubines  which  he  hath  left  to  keep  the  house,  and  all 
Israel  shall  hear  that  thou  hast  broken  with  thy  father;  then 
shall  the  hands  of  all  that  are  with  thee,  be  strong."  Another 
rebellion  threatened  David  by  the  Benjaminite  Sheba,  the 
son  of  Bichri  whom  all  Israel  joined,  with  the  exception  of 
Judah.  Then  David  "took  the  ten  women,  his  concubines, 
whom  he  had  left  to  keep  the  house,  and  put  them  in  ward, 
and  fed  them,  but  went  not  in  to  them,  and  they  were  shut  up 
unto  the  day  of  their  death,  living  in  widowhood."  The 
reason  for  that  proceeding  is  not  that  he  abhorred  intercourse 
with  the  women  that  had  been  violated  by  Absalom,  but 
rather  because  he  wanted  to  protect  them  against  another 
attack,  and  himself  against  the  usurpation  of  another  pre- 
tender, and  thus,  while  his  throne  was  tottering,  he  volun- 
tarily resigned  his  royal  prerogative.  When  Adonijah,  who 
had  also  unsuccessfully  sought  to  usurp  the  reign  during  the 
life-time  of  David,  received  after  the  king's  death,  permission 
to  remain  in  the  country,  he  goes  to  Bathsheba,  the  mother 
of  Solomon,  and  tells  her:  "Speak,  I  pray  thee,  to  Solomon, 
the  king,  that  he  give  me  Abishag,  the  Shunamite" — who 
attended  David  in  his  last  years — "to  wife."  Which  appears 
to  her  a  harmless  request,  and  Bathsheba  innocently  conveys 
that  request  of  Adonijah  to  Solomon,  but  Solomon  takes 
offense  and  says:  "Ask  for  him  the  kingdom  also."  To  the 
writer  of  the  Books  of  Kings,  the  connection  between  the 
request  for  Abishag  as  the  concubine  of  David,  and  an  attempt 
at  usurpation  of  the  crown,  is  something  very  serious,  and  to 
justify  Solomon's  suspicion,  he  has  the  tale  of  Abishag's 
reception  by  David,  and  Adonijah's  rebelfion  during  David's 
lifetime  quite  close  together,  as  if  to  illustrate  that  second 


Sacrificial  Service  and  Priesthood  73 

attempt.  You  see  that  the  intercourse  with  the  concubines 
of  the  father  and  ruler  involved  also  a  claim  to  the  acquisition 
of  dominion ;  and  thus  the  pretension  of  the  tribe  is  mirrored 
in  the  proceeding  of  its  progenitor  Reuben.  Reubenites, 
Dathan  and  Abiram,  revolted  against  Moses;  the  whole  of 
them  appear  almost  as  seceders,  and  the  other  tribes  of  Israel 
do  not  trust  them.  When  a  national  war  was  being  fought, 
the  prophetess  Deborah  exclaims:  "Reuben,  why  bodest 
thou  among  the  sheep-folds?  to  hear  the  blea tings  of  the 
flocks?  for  as  to  the  divisions  of  Reuben  there  were  serious 
doubts."  Thus  Reuben  is  pushed  into  the  background,  is 
blamed,  though  he  has  his  claims  which,  however,  find  no 
favor.  He  wants  to  save  Joseph,  but  he  is  not  listened  to;  he 
is  ready  to  offer  himself  as  hostage  for  Benjamin,  but  receives 
no  answer;  he  afterwards  complains  that  he  had  not  been 
obeyed,  but  no  attention  is  paid  to  his  complaint.  When 
Jacob  blesses  his  sons  before  his  death,  he  says:  "Reuben, 
thou  art  my  first-born,  my  might,  and  the  beginning  of  my 
strength,  destined  for  the  excellency  of  dignity  and  the  excel- 
lency of  power;  but  unstable  as  water,  thou  shalt  not  excel." 
Moses  says  in  his  blessing:  "Let  Reuben  live,  and  not  die, 
although  his  men  be  few" — and  nothing  more.  The  tribe  of 
Reuben  was  the  first  to  disappear.  Even  before  the  other 
tribes  were  carried  into  exile,  his  land  was  conquered  and  the 
inhabitants  carried  into  captivity.  That  is  one  tribe  that 
aspired  to  prominence,  but  could  not  obtain  it  for  any  length 
of  time. 

Another  tribe,  more  powerful,  is  that  of  Ephraim.  The 
history  of  Ephraim  from  his  earliest  time,  or  rather,  that  of 
Joseph,  his  father,  is  overcast  with  real  charms;  it  is  a  pro- 
totype of  the  later  time,  of  the  history  of  the  tribe  itself. 
Joseph  is  also  a  first-born  son — he  is  the  first-born  son  of  the 
beloved  wife,  of  that  wife  who  was  the  wife  of  Jacob,  whom 
he  had  beheld  first,  for  whom  he  had  served,  whom  he  loved, 
and  whom  he  bore  in  his  heart  as  long  as  he  lived.  Joseph 
himself,  a  lovely,  beautiful  youth,  how  noble  is  his  conduct 
everywhere!  Dreaming,  he  peers  into  the  future,  but  just 
therein  appears  the  aspiring  disposition,  a  profound  pre- 


74  Judaism  and  Its  History 

sentiment  of  his  future  importance  and  greatness,  and  not 
only  that  he  is  great  and  becomes  great  in  authority,  but  he 
is  also  great  morally.  His  purity  is  proven  by  his  resisting 
all  temptations,  he  remains  guileless  and  cheerful  by  the 
innocence  of  his  heart  amidst  the  heaviest  trials.  But  he 
removes  to  a  strange  land ;  his  greatness  is  exhibited  in  exten- 
sion of  power  outside,  rather  than  within.  Such  are  the 
indications  about  the  tribe  of  Ephraim.  We  do  not  know 
enough  about  him  to  demonstrate  his  importance  fully;  the 
accounts  have  all  a  Judean  coloring,  have  reached  us  through 
Judean  channels,  and  yet  his  prominent  position  shines 
through  them  everywhere.  Out  of  Ephraim  is  he  that  first 
enters  Canaan:  Joshua  is  an  Ephraimite,  and  he  is  the 
successor  of  Moses.  Ephraim  is  the  first  to  establish  the 
power  of  Israel.  The  first  prophets  arose  in  Ephraim  and 
proclaimed  the  noble,  high-minded  spirit  reigning  there.  Of 
course,  it  has  the  temptation  and  impulse  to  become  a  great 
power;  it  is  not  satisfied  with  occupying  an  important  posi- 
tion within  Israel,  and  often  attempts  conquests.  The  chief 
power  in  Israel  wants  to  be  a  Great  Power  in  Asia,  and  yet 
fails  to  attain  its  purpose  of  ruling  all  Israel. 

By  the  side  of  Ephraim  we* meet  Judah.  Judah,  gloomier, 
less  attractive,  is  in  his  whole  appearance  more  self-contained 
and  secluded,  more  austere,  and  through  that  austerity,  more 
tenacious  and  impelled  to  develop  the  idea  farther.  Judah 
saves  Joseph  from  death;  Judah  offers  himself  as  surety  for 
Benjamin,  when  Joseph  wants  to  detain  him.  Out  of  Judah 
is  one  of  the  messengers,  Caleb,  the  son  of  Jephuneh,  who  is 
also  full  of  enthusiasm  for  the  conquest  of  Canaan,  and 
rejects  the  hesitancy  of  the  other  tribes  as  unworthy.  Judah 
preserves  his  tribal  independence  and,  for  a  short  time, 
attains  dominion  over  all  Israel.  That  dominion  was  cer- 
tainly not  an  absolute  one,  the  independence  of  the  tribes 
was  surely  distinct  enough,  so  that  also  David's  and  Solomon's 
time  does  not  show  a  really  consolidated  monarchy,  although 
Judah's  hegemony  was  fully,  even  if  unwillingly,  acknowl- 
edged. A  story  which  is  really  more  of  a  parable,  signifi- 
cantly discloses  the  very  ideal  of  the  popular  movement: 


Sacrificial  Service  and  Priesthood  75 

David  was  dead,  and  Solomon  succeeded  him;  he  was  a  wise 
king,  and  of  his  wisdom  one  instance  is  related,  which  at  the 
same  time  reveals  the  principal  issue  of  that  time.  Two 
women  appeared  before  him,  one  with  a  living  child,  the  other 
with  a  dead  one,  but  each  one  asserted  that  the  living  child 
belonged  to  her  and  must  be  adjudged  to  her.  Then  Solomon 
said:  "Bring  me  a  sword  and  divide  the  living  child  in  two, 
and  give  half  of  the  child  to  each."  One  of  the  women  was 
satisfied  with  the  division,  but  the  other  exclaimed:  "Let 
the  child  live,  give  her  the  living  child,  and  in  no  wise  slay 
it."  Then  Solomon  decided :  "She  is  the  true  mother  of  the 
child" — she  would  rather  give  him  up  than  see  his  life  put  in 
jeopardy.  A  beautiful  thought,  of  genuine  sagacity.  But  it 
is  more  than  that,  it  is  a  complete  designation  of  the  tribal 
condition  at  that  time.  Division  of  the  realm  was  the  issue, 
and  the  animosity  which  one  tribe  nursed  against  the  other 
appeared  when  the  strong  arm  of  Solomon  was  palsied  in 
death.  The  kingdom  was  divided;  the  desire  of  each  indi- 
vidual tribe  to  assume  the  supremacy  could  no  longer  be 
repressed.  "Mine  is  the  living  child;  mine  is  the  whole 
people!"  was  the  cry  of  either  tribe,  and  division  followed. 
The  division  surely  displeased  the  true  patriots,  yet  neither 
one  of  the  rivals  could  bring  himself  to  the  point  of  saying: 
"Give  him  the  whole  kingdom,  but  do  not  divide  it!"  Solo- 
mon's word  may  have  flashed  as  an  admonition,  but  it  failed 
to  kindle  in  their  hearts  the  proper  enthusiasm;  the  division 
of  the  kingdom  was  consummated,  and  mutual  animosity 
between  Judah  and  Ephraim  ensued;  Ephraim  was  the  Great 
Power,  Judah  a  small  state  of  second  or  third  rank. 

Do  you  want  to  listen  to  a  significant  expression  of  that 
condition?  There  was  a  king  in  Judah,  Amaziah,  a  valiant, 
gallant  man,  who  had  humbled  and  chastised  many  a  neigh- 
boring ruler.  Encouraged  by  these  victories,  he  sent  word  to 
Jehoash,  the  king  of  Israel  at  that  time,  saying:  "Come, 
let  us  look  one  another  in  the  face!"  And  Jehoash,  the  king 
of  Israel,  sent  to  Amaziah,  the  king  of  Judah,  saying:  "The 
thistle  that  was  in  Lebanon  sent  to  the  cedar  that  was  in 
Lebanon,  saying,  'Give  thy  daughter  to  my  son  to  wife,'  and 


76  Judaism  and  Its  History 

there  passed  by  a  wild  beast  that  was  in  Lebanon,  and  trod 
down  the  thistle.**  You  can  easily  hear  in  that  speech  the 
overbearing  manner  of  a  Great  Power  towards  a  smaller 
state.  Ephraim  treated  Judah  as  such,  and  it  came  so  far 
that  Ephraim  allied  himself  with  foreign  nations  to  humble 
Judah."  Pekah  entered  into  an  alliance  with  Syria  against 
Judah,  and  through  such  measures  Ephraim,  the  kingdom  of 
Israel,  sealed  its  own  destruction;  thinking  it  had  grown 
beyond  the  Israelite  Idea,  it  aspired  to  be  an  Asiatic  Great 
Power,  and  to  achieve  that  project,  it  believed  itself  at 
liberty  to  betray  the  true  interests  of  Israel,  its  spiritual  life 
and  ideal,  under  the  pretense  of  serving  larger  and  more 
general  interests.  But  a  greater  power,  Assyria,  came  in  and 
crushed  Israel.  Judah  maintained  its  ground  on  the  battle- 
field, the  Assyrian  Power  was  compelled  to  retreat,  preserved 
its  political  existence  for  some  time  thereafter,  and  during  the 
short  time  allotted  to  it,  the  great  men  arose  who  gave  vigor 
to  the  ideal  of  the  people.  Judah  knew  how  to  preserve  its 
more  austere  unity  within,  and  that  manifested  itself  in  the 
unity  of  divine  service  at  Jerusalem  as  well  as  in  all  its  relig- 
ious institutions.  Judah  developed  that  spirit  to  an  imperish- 
able, intrinsic  strength.  It  had  also  to  submit  to  the  force  of 
arms  and  was  swallowed  by  the  Babylonian  Empire,  but  not 
consumed.  Its  political  existence  perished,  but  the  mental 
and  spiritual  life  was  preserved,  despite  the  exile;  Judah  was 
compelled  to  emigrate,  but  it  was  only  an  emigration  of 
citizens,  the  fellow-members  of  the  faith  continued  their 
connection  and  union.  The  ten  tribes  had  disappeared;  a 
part  of  them  mingled  and  blended  with  the  population  of 
other  nations,  the  other  part  went  over  and  joined  the  people 
of  the  Kingdom  of  Judah  which  continued  longer  and  remained 
the  standard-bearer  of  the  spiritual  life,  and  from  that  is 
derived  the  name  that  is  now  borne  by  the  religion  that  for 
thousands  of  years  has  victoriously  maintained  itself  in  the 
world's  arena. 


VI. 

Exile  and  Return,  Tradition. 

Let  us  for  a  few  moments  more  dwell  upon  the  considera- 
tion of  the  various  political  groups  which  in  their  time  cor- 
responded to  the  religious  tendencies  in  the  process  of  develop- 
ment in  Israel.  We  observed  that  the  tribe  of  Reuben  was 
the  first  that  changed  its  nomadic  life  into  a  permanent 
settlement.  It  was  the  first  that  had  become  the  element  in 
Israel  which  led  to  the  organization  of  a  state,  to  the  estab- 
lishment of  a  nation,  but  in  later  times  it  was  pushed  to  the 
rear  and  did  not  receive  the  consideration  which  its  pioneer 
establishment  of  nationality  perhaps  deserved.  Nor  is  there 
any  doubt  as  to  its  having  been  laggard  in  religious  develop- 
ment. It  is  true  that  the  foundation  of  the  doctrine  of 
revelation  was  laid  on  the  other  side  of  the  Jordan  in  the 
territory  which  belonged  to  the  tribe  of  Reuben  and  those 
that  were  allied  with  it.  Moses  never  passed  beyond  that 
territory,  he  remained  within  it  and  he  died  there;  there 
revelation  had  its  first  habitation  and  was  first  entrenched 
and  elaborated  according  to  the  varying  conditions  of  life  but 
yet  it  evidently  remained  in  a  stage  of  arrested  development, 
immature,  and  passed  by  higher  evolution,  it  finally  sank  into 
oblivion.  At  a  very  early  date,  we  learn  that  Reuben  and 
those  tribes  that  followed  its  leadership  built  an  altar  unto 
the  One  Living  God,  and  that  such  proceedings  had  excited 
suspicion,  as  they  had  manifested  idolatrous  intentions,  so 
that  the  other  tribes  came  near  making  war  upon  them. 
Reuben  went  down,  unsung  and  unremembered,  and  its  land 
came  into  possession  of  Ammon,  Moab,  and  Edom,  nations 
which  are  described  as  especially  hostile  to  Judaism.  There 
is  no  trace  of  a  continued  existence  within  that  territory  of  a 
spiritual  life  such  as  had  come  down  through  the  remaining 
tribes.    At  a  very  late  period,  the  land  was  again  annexed  by 


78  Judaism  and  Its  History 

conquest  as  belonging  geographically  to  Judea,  and  then  no 
difference  appeared,  because  Judaism,  spreading  far  and  wide, 
penetrated  there,  too.  The  ancient  religious  condition  of  the 
territory  had  completely  passed  out  of  existence. 

Next,  it  was  the  tribe  of  Ephraim  that  came  to  the  front, 
both  by  political  power  and  by  spiritual  eminence  and  ennoble- 
ment. In  Ephraim,  distinguished  alike  by  intellectual 
qualities  and  noble,  refined  manners,  the  prophets  arose,  the 
men  who  bore  within  themselves  the  full,  pure  knowledge  of 
God,  who  proclaimed  the  Doctrine  according  to  its  profound 
conception  and  full  development.  *Tis  true,  it  did  not  grow 
within  the  entire  people  to  its  full,  vigorous  vitality,  and 
Ephraim  is  also  laid  low;  its  political  life,  and  with  that,  the 
soil  for  further  religious  development  disappears,  but  yet  it 
does  not  waste  away  altogether.  The  kingdom  of  Israel 
was  destroyed  by  Assyria,  and  its  inhabitants  were  car- 
ried into  captivity;  however — as  in  Antiquity  generally, 
only  partial  expatriation  but  not  total  extermination  of 
nations  took  place — a  portion  of  its  people  remained  in  their 
native  country.  That  part  was  increased  by  settlers  sent  into 
the  country  by  the  conqueror,  with  the  view  of  saving  the 
territory  from  desolation.  And  here  the  power  of  intellectual 
culture  proved  its  superiority;  the  conquerors  had  to  yield 
spiritually  to  the  conquered.  As  in  later  times,  savage  hordes 
destroyed  the  Roman  Empire  and,  as  victors,  crushed  the 
ancient  nationality,  but  had  to  yield  to  its  higher  culture, 
were  civilized  by  it  and  thus  transformed  into  a  humanizing 
element  of  the  world,  so  it  happened  also  in  the  conquered 
land  of  the  ancient  Kingdom  of  Israel.  The  settlers  who 
were  sent  to  share  the  land  with  the  remainder  of  its  native 
inhabitants,  themselves  gradually  changed  into  Israelites,  or 
rather,  Ephraimites.  They  called  themselves  Shomronim, 
Samaritans,  after  the  ancient  capital  of  the  Kingdom  of 
Israel,  Shomron  (Samaria).  They  were  people  who  accepted 
Israelite  belief  at  first  with  an  admixture  of  their  own  Assyrian 
customs,  and  gradually  grew  more  and  more  into  the  Eph- 
raimite  ideas,  hence  into  the  fundamental  principles  of 
Judaism,  taking  hold  of  the  pure  idea  of  God  and  together 


Exile  and  Return,  Tradition  79 

with  it  of  the  practices  of  life  as  they  had  come  forth  out  of 
that  idea,  both  in  moral  action  and  in  ceremonial  form. 
That  is  the  origin  of  the  Samaritans;  and  they  occupied  a 
stage  of  development  beyond  which  the  Idea  had  then  pro- 
gressed. The  Kingdom  of  Israel  had  lagged  in  the  rear  in 
religious  knowledge  and  although  it  possessed  the  foundation, 
it  had  neglected  the  living  spirit  which  ceaselessly  continued 
to  work  ahead  and  was  cultivated  in  the  Kingdom  of  Judah. 
The  Samaritans  had  only  the  law  of  Moses;  but  the  great 
prophets  that  had  arisen  in  Judah,  who  regarded  Jerusalem 
as  their  center,  who  looked  upon  the  house  of  David  as  the 
representative  of  the  political,  social,  and  religious  con- 
viction of  its  people — those  great  prophets,  they  repudiated 
from  motives  of  jealousy.  Thus  they  had  the  letter  of  the 
law,  but  the  full  spirit  w^as  not  alive  in  them  to  mature  nobler 
fruit,  and  therefore  they  clung  with  tenacity  to  their  ancient 
holy  places.  Shechem,  which  already  in  ancient  times  had 
been  a  place  for  the  cultivation  of  religious  life,  continued  to 
be  their  holy  city;  Mt.  Garizim,  at  the  foot  of  which  Shechem 
was  situated,  was  venerated  as  the  place  of  Revelation,  and 
both  as  localities  of  peculiar  sanctifying  influence;  to  offer  their 
sacrifices  there  was  considered  an  act  of  loftiest  piety.  The 
Samaritans  of  later  times  adopted  much  of  Jewish  doctrine; 
poor  in  knowledge,  living  only  on  isolated  ancient  recollections 
and  traditions,  they  had  to  draw  out  of  the  living,  spiritual 
stream  running  through  Judaism;  they  adopted  from  Judaism 
parts  only,  and  only  such  parts  and  only  so  much  of  those  as 
did  not  endanger  their  own  separate  existence.  Thus  they  ^ 
remained  a  sickly  religious  community,  and  yet  maintained  - 
themselves  a  long  time.  Such  is  the  power  of  even  a  crippled 
idea,  that,  after  all,  it  proves  to  be  a  life-imparting  agency. . 
They  maintained  themselves  a  long  time;  they  exist  even  to 
this  day,  but  their  existence  was  a  sickly  one,  their  religious 
life  morbid.  Their  spiritual  development  could  not  rise 
farther,  because  they  clung  to  weather-beaten  ruins  on  which 
moss  may  start,  but  no  healthy,  vigorous  plant  can  grow 
and  develop  there.  Even  at  those  times  when  fresh  starts 
were  made  in  the  march  of  events  and  they  touched  also  those 


80  Judaism  and  Its  History 

regions,  some  slight  quiverings  became  perceptible  in  those 
benumbed  members  and  a  few  individuals  gave  signs  of 
awakening,  but  they  did  not  get  fully  out  of  their  sleep,  and 
their  community  sank  deeper  and  deeper  into  spiritual 
atrophy  and  political  decay.  Their  members  diminished 
more  and  more;  they  could  not  tear  themselves  away  from 
the  little  spot  which  alone  continued  to  afford  them  new 
nourishment.  The  idea  within  them  was  not  an  idea  com- 
prising all  mankind,  one  that  might  be  carried  unto  all  the 
world;  they  must  cling  to  their  home  city.  There  they 
would  live,  there  they  live  even  unto  this  day,  dwindled  down 
to  about  a  hundred  families;  and  there  they  are  waiting  for 
extinction,  living  on  the  memory  of  a  great  time  of  youth 
which,  because  it  was  not  able  to  rise  into  vigorous  manhood, 
was  arrested  while  in  the  midst  of  its  course. 

It  was  the  tribe  of  Judah  that  took  upon  itself  and  com- 
pletely carried  out  the  development  of  the  Divine  Idea.  In 
Judah,  in  its  austere  union,  permeated  by  the  belief  in  the 
One  in  Unity  who  as  the  Pure  and  Incorporeal  One  was  rep- 
resented as  "He  is,"  that  belief  had  fully  taken  hold  of  the 
people.  And  as  the  belief  bears  unity  within  itself,  it  pro- 
duces also  unity  in  all  the  institutions  of  the  tribe,  in  the 
uninterrupted  succession  within  the  same  royal  family,  in  its 
Temple  and  all  the  institutions  connected  therewith,  and  in 
the  harmony  of  a  living,  civilizing  spirit  in  all  the  forms  and 
expressions  resulting  from  that  belief:  it  was  Judah  that 
ripened  into  true  manhood  and  developed  the  Revealed 
Doctrine  into  a  full  life-power.  There  those  great  men  arose 
whose  comprehensive  works — but  why  call  them  works? — 
whose  comprehensive  words  of  life  and  deeds  of  life  have  been 
handed  down  even  to  this  day  as  a  life-giving  fountain.  In 
Judea,  the  Idea  had  been  developed  to  such  power  that  it 
had  no  further  need  for  being  confined  within  a  certain 
country.  The  establishment  of  a  nationality  was  not  Israel's 
mission;  Israel's  mission  was  not  accomplished  by  the  estab- 
lishment of  its  nationality. 

Nations  which  the  World's  History  commissions  only  to 
establish  and  preserve  commonwealths  for  a  time,  in  order 


Exile  and  Return,  Tradition  81 

that  they  may  do  their  allotted  share  in  the  world's  work,  are 
cut  asunder,  their  lives  and  works  cease,  they  move  toward 
their  destruction,  as  soon  as  they  are  disengaged  from  their 
commonwealth.  But  a  nationality  which  is  only  a  means  for 
a  higher  object,  an  external  form  for  a  great  Idea  intended  to 
comprise  all  mankind  must,  for  a  time,  gather  its  forces, 
until  a  serried  host  is  prepared,  among  whom  the  Idea  may 
obtain  its  full  manifestation,  so  that  it  may,  fully  strengthened, 
spread  all  over  the  world.  Such  a  nationality  may  cease  as 
a  commonwealth,  and  yet  is  not  broken  up  as  far  as  its  essence 
is  concerned.  The  Kingdom  of  Judah  fell,  but  Judaism  did 
not  fall  with  it.  Judaism  is  the  name  which  thenceforward 
the  Revealed  Doctrine  bore  and  still  does  bear;  Judaism  alone 
is  the  full  and  mature  expression  of  it.  Let  us  bear  and  keep 
that  name  as  a  name  of  honor.  Much  ignominy  has  been 
heaped  upon  that  name  and  the  name  of  those  that  hold  that 
faith ;  ignominy  has  settled  upon  it,  and  therefore  it  has  often 
been  regarded  by  those  that  bear  it,  with  a  certain  nervous- 
ness; they  would  willingly  exchange  it  for  another:  Israelites, 
Professors  of  the  Mosaic  religion,  etc.  But  taking  the  term 
in  its  more  limited  sense,  we  are  by  no  means  Israelites.  We 
are  Israelites  as  descendants  from  Jacob- Israel,  but  not 
Israelites  as  citizens  of  the  Kingdom  of  Israel.  We  are  not 
professors  of  the  Mosaic  religion  exclusively,  because  we  do 
not  cling  to  the  letter  of  the  law  only,  even  if  it  is  our  symbol, 
that  comprehensive  book  which  contains  from  its  beginning 
to  its  end  the  Doctrine  of  God.  Let  us  not  repudiate  the 
great  men  who  appeared  in  Judah,  the  Isaiahs  and  Jeremiahs, 
the  poets  of  the  Psalms  and  Job ;  they  are  part  of  the  quicken- 
ing spirit,  part  of  the  spiritual  stream  that  flows  through  the 
whole;  and  if  we,  as  the  Ephraimites  did,  would  hold  only  to 
the  dead  letter  of  the  law  without  accepting  the  spiritual 
stream,  then  indeed,  we  are  no  Jews,  nor  do  we  deserve  to 
bear  the  name. 

Judah  fell,  but  Judaism  continued  to  exist  even  after 
Judah  had  been  carried  into  captivity.  For  Judah  was  not 
spared  that  fate  either,  it  succumbed  to  the  power  of  Babylon. 
But  it  had  become  firmly  established  in  mind  and  it  now 


82  Judaism  and  Its  History 

proved  to  be  permeated  by  a  higher  spiritual  energy.  True, 
in  their  exile,  the  Judeans  hanged  their  harps  upon  the 
willows,  they  would  not  sing  the  songs  of  Zion,  lamentations 
flowed  from  their  hearts,  yet  together  with  those,  there  also 
arose  the  conviction  that  their  greatest  possession  had  come 
along  with  them  and  had  not  been  left  behind  to  decay. 
They  had  gone  to  Babylon,  and  as  everything  in  the  history 
of  that  people  is  providential,  as  everywhere  the  direction  of 
a  higher  power  is  manifested,  so  it  appears  also  in  the  destiny 
that  awaited  them  there.  They  did  not  remain  long  under 
Babylonian  rule;  Babylon  was  forced  to  surrender  to  another 
empire;  the  recollections  of  Babylon  are  buried;  another 
nation  took  her  place — Persia — ^which  was  animated  by  milder 
manners  and  higher  knowledge.  It  was  also  an  Asiatic  nation, 
moved  in  the  mental  environment  of  that  time,  and  yet  had 
a  peculiar  higher  culture  of  its  own.  Judah,  or  rather  the 
believers  in  Judaism  living  in  Persia,  had  to  adopt  nothing  of 
Persian  teachings,  they  carried  their  specialty  within  them- 
selves and  developed  it  independently ;  but  the  fact  that  they 
had  no  longer  to  contend  against  crude  idolatry,  was  of 
powerful  effect  upon  them.  Life  in  Persia  was  of  a  purer 
kind;  the  Religion  of  Light,  the  worship  of  Light  (Fire)  as 
the  purest  emanation  of  the  Deity,  afforded  peculiar  religious 
satisfaction  to  the  Persians.  The  Jews  adopted  nothing  of 
the  Persian  views,  at  all  events,  nothing  important.  The 
assumption  that  a  transformation  was  effected  by  the  influence 
of  the  Parsees,  is  not  justified  by  any  facts,  nor  is  there  any- 
thing in  sight  that  would  show  a  need  or  cause  for  such  action; 
isolated,  subordinate  conceptions  may,  as  even  our  ancient 
teachers  tell  us,  have  crept  into  Judaism,  but  they  remained 
secondary.  Our  ancient  teachers  report:  "The  names  of 
the  angels  migrated  with  the  Jews  at  their  return  into  their 
home  country,"  and  that  means  nothing  else  than  that  the 
whole  belief  in  angels  had  crept  into  Judaism  from  Babylon, 
from  Persia.  That  belief  in  angels,  that  grand  court,  or  state 
council  gathered  around  God,  as  the  rulers  of  Persia  had  it 
around  them,  the  assumption  of  seven  Archangels  who,  as  the 
highest  princes  near  the  king,  are  assembled  around  Ormuzd 


Exile  and  Return,  Tradition  83 

as  his  most  immediate  serving  ministers,  may  have  passed 
into  Judaism.  Judaism  also  had  adopted  in  many  places  the 
theory  of  angels  and  their  ministrations ;  but  that  conception 
never  rose  to  the  dignity  of  an  influential  belief,  to  a  dogma, 
that  would  have  had  any  decisive  effect  upon  the  develop- 
ment of  Judaism.  On  the  contrary,  we  find  a  determined 
struggle  against  Parseeism,  insofar  as  it  was  antagonistic  to 
the  fundamental  principles  of  Judaism. 

Parseeism  recognized  a  Dualism:  Ormuzd  as  the  creator 
and  god  of  light  and  every  good  thing,  Ahriman  as  the  creator 
of  darkness  and  every  evil.  Now,  the  prophet  writing  from 
the  standpoint  of  that  time,  especially  that  great  seer  who  by 
no  means  shows  hatred  of  Parseeism  nor  raises  his  voice  against 
its  rule;  who,  on  the  contrary,  glorifies  Cyrus  and  his  deeds 
in  exulting  strains,  that  same  prophet  proclaims:  "I  am  the 
Lord,  and  there  is  none  else,  there  is  no  God  besides  me;  I 
girded  thee  (Cyrus)  though  thou  hast  not  known  me ;  that 
they  may  know  from  the  rising  of  the  sun  and  from  the  west, 
that  there  is  none  besides  me:  I  am  the  Lord,  and  there  is 
none  else.  I  form  the  light  and  create  darkness;  I  make  peace 
and  create  evil.  I  the  Lord  do  all  these  things."  There  are 
not,  as  the  Persians  assume,  two  creating  spirits;  no,  the  same 
God  is  the  creator  of  dark  and  evil.  The  assertion  that  God 
is  the  very  creator  of  evil,  is  here  announced  with  such 
trenchant  directness  as  we  do  not  find  it  elsewhere,  and  it 
does  not  even  correspond  fully  to  the  spirit  of  Judaism,  but 
the  antagonism  had  then  to  be  emphasized  with  all  directness. 
In  the  course  of  time,  when  the  influence  of  Parseeism  offered 
no  longer  any  danger,  and  when  the  authorities  introduced 
that  verse  into  the  prayer-book,  they  changed  it  into:  "who 
formeth  and  createth  darkness,  who  maketh  peace  and  safety 
and  createth  the  whole'' — not,  "the  evil." 

Thus  the  Jews  lived  under  Persian  sovereignty  in  general 
without  oppression,  as  it  seems,  zealously  attending  to  their 
own  peculiar  spiritual  life.  Then  there  appeared  in  that 
nation  a  man  entrusted  with  a  civilizing  mission,  with  a 
grand,  world-historic  task.  Every  hero,  every  great  con- 
queror is  an  instrument  in  the  hand  of  Providence,  and  what- 


84  Judaism  and  Its  History 

ever  his  ambition  undertakes,  becomes  a  seed  of  blessing  for 
many  centuries.  Cyrus  undertook  to  destroy  many  kingdoms 
and  to  make  great  conquests,  and  he  succeeded  in  founding  a 
great  Persian  empire.  He  certainly  also  was  a  noble  man, 
permeated  by  a  lofty  spirit.  Everything  which  ancient  his- 
torians report  of  him,  bears  the  character,  not  of  a  cruel  con- 
queror, but  of  a  noble,  high-minded  man,  and  as  such  he 
showed  himself  also  to  the  Jews  who  lived  in  his  domains. 
He  seems  to  have  understood  the  character  of  that  closely 
connected  band,  the  Jews,  who  preserved  their  union  even  in 
a  strange  land,  and  he  proclaimed  to  them:  *'Who  is  there 
among  you  of  all  his  people,  whom  God  urges  to  go  up  again 
to  Jerusalem,  which  is  in  Judah,  and  build  the  house  of  the 
Lord  God  of  Israel?  And  whosoever  remaineth  in  any  place 
where  he  sojourneth,  let  the  men  of  his  place  help  him  with 
money  and  with  goods  and  with  beasts."  And  many  went 
thither,  not  all — a  great  part  of  the  Jewish  population  re- 
mained in  Persia ;  nor  were  those  that  remained  the  worst  of 
them.  Even  then,  fervent  attachment  to  their  faith  was 
united  with  love  for  their  new  home,  although  but  a  short 
time,  hardly  two  generations,  had  elapsed  since  they  had 
settled  in  their  new  country.  Many  remained,  a  considerable 
number  returned  to  Palestine,  and  they  were  followed  by 
several  separate  emigrations,  and  thus  they  established,  for 
the  second  time,  their  national  existence,  the  Jewish  common- 
wealth. Another  phenomenon  is  thus  presented,  the  like  of 
which  is  hardly  found  in  history.  Whenever  a  people  has 
left  its  country,  when  its  commonwealth  is  destroyed,  its 
citizens  are  dispersed,  State  and  Nation  can  not  be  restored; 
when  the  nerves  of  a  nation  are  severed,  its  bond  of  union 
rent  asunder,  its  inner  life  deadened,  it  is  a  difficult  task  to 
breathe  new  life  into  the  same  material.  To  the  attempt  of 
renewing  the  circulation  in  the  dead  members,  hardly  any 
people  has  shown  itself  equal;  the  example  of  the  Jews  is 
almost  the  only  one  in  the  world's  history. 

The  Jews  returned  and  established  a  nationality  a  second 
time,  and  how  could  they  succeed  in  that?  Because  they  were 
more  than  a  nation,  they  were  a  Community  united  by  the 


Exile  and  Return,  Tradition  85 

bond  of  an  idea.  Greek  mythology  relates  of  the  giant 
Antaeus,  that  he  had  been  invincible  as  long  as  he  stood  upon 
the  ground,  but  that  it  was  an  easy  task  to  conquer  him  when 
he  was  raised  up  from  it;  and  when  Hercules  was  set  to  kill 
him,  he  was  unable  to  overcome  him  while  on  the  ground,  but 
as  soon  as  he  had  lifted  him  up,  it  was  an  easy  matter.  The 
same  is  the  case  with  almost  every  nation.  Upon  its  parent 
soil,  it  continually  receives  fresh  energy;  as  long  as  it  abides 
there  without  interruption,  its  life  is  assured  for  a  long  time, 
but  when  it  is  removed  from  that  soil,  its  vigor  has  vanished. 
But  Judah  was  not  merely  a  people,  it  was  the  depositary  of 
an  Idea,  permeated  by  a  living  thought  of  which  its  nationality 
was  one  mode  of  expression  only,  and  which  could  therefore 
be  repeated  a  second  time. 

True,  the  real,  direct,  creative  agency  of  revelation  was  at 
an  end.  Nevertheless,  at  that  restoration,  men  arose  in  Judea 
who,  in  a  measure,  are  the  seal  or  the  conclusion  of  prophecy: 
above  all,  that  seer  who  with  exulting  strain  greets  the 
beautiful  time  of  restoration  and  rejuvenation,  that  great  seer 
who,  as  one  of  the  noblest  and  far-seeing,  penetrates  all 
conditions  with  comprehensive  glance  and  loftiest  view,  and 
forcibly  describes  the  mission  of  Judah  to  all  mankind.  He 
hails  that  time,  and  Cyrus,  the  hero  of  that  time,  with  enthu- 
siastic word,  saying:  ".  .  .  That  saith  to  Cyrus,  my 
Shepherd!  Let  him  perform  all  my  pleasure,  that  he  may 
proclaim.  Let  Jerusalem  be  built;  let  the  foundations  of  the 
Temple  be  laid.  Thus  saith  the  Lord  to  his  anointed,  to 
Cyrus,  I  have  seized  his  right  hand,  to  subdue  nations  before 
him,  I  will  go  up  before  thee,  and  make  the  crooked  places 
straight,  break  the  gates  of  brass,  give  thee  the  treasures  of 
darkness,  and  hidden  riches  of  secret  places,  that  thou  mayest 
know  that  I  am  the  Lord  who  call  thee,  the  God  of  Israel." 
And  then  the  prophet  continues:  "That  they  may  know 
from  the  rising  of  the  sun  and  from  the  west  ...  I  form 
the  light  and  create  darkness,"  etc.  (as  quoted  above).  In 
those  words  we  hear  the  enthusiasm  of  a  richly  endowed  bard 
who,  permeated  by  the  living  idea  of  Judaism,  greets  with 
fervor  and  highest  delight  the  time  in  which  it  could  again 


86  Judaism  and  Its  History 

display  a  living  activity  through  a  living  nation.  Several 
other  prophets,  Haggai,  Zechariah,  Malachi,  appeared  at  the 
beginning  of  the  enterprise  and  greeted  the  time  in  the  spirit 
of  revelation.  But  yet  the  time  was  to  arrive  when  the 
stream  of  Divine  Revelation  was  to  cease  running,  the 
Revealed  Doctrine  was  finished,  Israel  and  Judah  had  become 
thoroughly  imbued  with  it. 

Revelation  was  at  an  end,  but  as  a  sequence,  a  living  spirit 
was  yet  to  continue  and  animate  the  whole  if  it  was  not  to 
become  stagnant;  the  spirit  that  formerly  prepared  men  by 
direct  effect  and  created  the  Doctrine  must  needs  continue 
its  work  in  order  to  preserve  and  quicken  it.  As  in  nature, 
the  creative  energy  called  forth  the  entire  existence  in  a 
marvelous  manner  and  then,  when  things  settled  down,  rested 
in  a  certain  measure,  ceased  to  produce  new  formations,  but 
still  manifests  itself  as  a  force  of  preservation  and  advance- 
ment; as  the  same  force  that  created,  still  lives  in  the  laws 
which  regulate  nature  in  her  freshness  and  continuance, 
forming  a  living  stream  that  ever  fertilizes  her  anew — so  it 
is  also  in  the  spiritual  life  which  was  created  by  Revelation, 
and  was  to  be  preserved  and  quickened  by  Tradition.  The 
creative  spirit  had  not  altogether  vanished  from  Judaism, 
there  was  no  complete  conclusion,  so  that  nothing  could  be 
renewed,  nothing  improved — the  living  spirit  continued  to 
flow  through  the  times.  Though  the  complaint  is  heard, 
"There  is  no  more  prophet  among  us" — yet  the  same  holy, 
ennobling  spirit  continued  to  work.  Tradition  is  the  develop- 
ing power  which  continues  in  Judaism  as  an  invisible,  creative 
agent,  as  a  certain  ennobling  something  that  never  obtains 
its  full  expression  but  ever  continues  to  work,  transform,  and 
create.  Tradition  is  the  animating  soul  in  Judaism,  it  is  the 
daughter  of  Revelation  and  of  equal  rank  with  her.  Tradition 
never  did,  and  never  will,  vanish  from  Judaism;  it  is  the 
fountain  that  ever  fertilizes  the  times  and  must  make  trans- 
formations according  to  the  changing  wants  and  necessities 
of  life  arising  from  the  contact  with  the  outside  world.  It 
was  the  spirit  that  laid  the  foundation  of  the  renewed  national 
existence,  the  new  religious  life.     If  ever  a  time  should  come 


Exile  and  Return,  Tradition  87 

— but  it  will  never  come — when  the  stream  of  Tradition  will 
be  dried  up,  when  Judaism  may  be  regarded  as  something 
completely  finished  and  closed,  when  men  turned  backwards, 
look  at  the  creations  of  former  times  and,  without  inquiry, 
want  to  preserve  them,  while  others  will  not  readily  conform 
with  the  past  and  yet  look  with  romantic  reverence,  with  a 
sort  of  antiquarian  affection  upon  Judaism  as  upon  ruins 
which  must  be  preserved  in  their  fragmentary  shape,  or 
when  others  pass  by  those  ruins  with  aristocratic  indifference, 
when  no  living  energy,  no  transforming  force,  shows  its 
appearance  anywhere — ^whenever  such  a  time  should  come, 
then  indeed,  you  may  prepare  a  grave  for  Judaism,  then  it 
will  be  dead,  then  its  spirit  will  have  vanished  altogether,  it 
has  then  become  a  walking  skeleton  that  may  continue  a  little 
while  but  must  surely  move  towards  dissolution.  But 
Judaism  is  not  constituted  that  way;  Judaism  has  a  con- 
tinuously advancing  Tradition.  Let  us  give  due  honor  to 
that  word!  Tradition  is,  like  Revelation,  a  spiritual  energy 
that  ever  continues  to  work,  a  higher  power  that  does  not 
proceed  from  man,  but  is  an  emanation  from  the  Divine  Spirit, 
a  power  that  works  in  the  community,  chooses  its  own 
ministers,  manifests  itself  by  its  ever  purer  and  riper  fruits, 
and  thus  preserves  vitality  and  existence  itself. 

With  Tradition,  the  second  popular  and  political  life, 
the  second  epoch  of  the  existence  of  Judah  was  developed. 
But  that  political  life  had  to  be  established  by  a  hard  struggle, 
and  notwithstanding  the  intense  delight  felt  at  first  by  all, 
sadness  soon  crept  into  their  hearts  on  account  of  the  scanty 
means  at  their  command  and  the  small  results  gained.  For 
it  was  a  second  birth  that  had  to  be  effected,  and  it  soon 
became  evident  that  the  work  went  on  with  a  certain  nervous- 
ness, that  it  was  not  guided  by  the  living,  creative  spirit,  but 
that  with  painful  consideration,  ancient  custom  was  preferred, 
though  it  no  longer  auited  the  time.  Again,  priesthood  and 
sacrifice  appeared  in  the  foreground ;  the  more  so  because  in 
Judah  the  Davidian  dynasty  and  the  priests  who  had  remained 
faithful,  the  sons  of  Zadok,  had  attained  to  high  authority 
and  were  regarded  as  the  natural  leaders  around  whom  all 


88  Judaism  and  Its  History 

gathered,  and  in  fact,  the  first  leaders  of  the  returned  pilgrims 
were  descendants  of  those  two  families;  one  a  descendant  of 
the  House  of  David,  and  the  other,  one  of  the  sons  of  Zadok. 
Now,  as  the  new  state  was  merely  a  province  under  the 
sovereignty  of  Persia,  it  was  but  natural  that  the  reigning 
descendant  of  David  was  of  less  importance  and  that  the 
High  Priest  obtained  a  greater  honor  and  thus  formed  around 
himself  a  priest-court,  a  nobility,  which  soon  boasted  of  their 
sanctity,  a  family  which  identified  their  personal  claims  with 
those  of  the  sanctuary  and  clothed  their  human  passions  with 
the  garb  of  holiness.  The  same  great  seer,  therefore,  uttered 
his  severe  strictures  against  those  who  boasted  of  their 
inherited  holiness,  who  prided  themselves  of  their  aristo- 
cratic descent,  and  who  derided  the  servant  of  God,  although 
he  was  the  only  faithful  one,  the  man  of  the  middle  class  who 
clung  to  what  he  had  inherited  as  sacred  but  who  did  not 
belong  to  the  set  in  authority,  yet  constituted  the  core 
and  body  of  the  political  and  religious  life  in  Judah.  We  hear 
complaints  about  oppression,  about  internal  decadence;  and 
another  circumstance  added  its  burden;  namely,  that  the 
political  life  could  not  gain  vigor;  it  had  not  been  produced 
by  growth,  it  was  a  gift  by  the  grace  of  the  king  of  Persia.  A 
given  liberty  is  a  broken  reed  which  is  not  in  connection  with 
the  soil,  and  withers  and  dies.  Thus,  sadness  had  seized  upon 
the  people,  it  was  a  kind  of  despair  of  themselves.  Many 
gloomy,  despair-breathing  words  uttered  by  the  Preacher- 
Prophet  are  the  production  of  that  very  time.  They  are 
expressive  of  the  sense  of  insecurity  which  takes  hold  of  the 
popular  mind  when  its  inner  and  outer  life  is  attacked,  when 
culture  has  reached  an  advanced  stage  and  yet  can  not 
proceed  to  its  full  development.  It  was  a  state  of  things 
which  the  prophet  expresses  thus:  "Children  have  come  to 
birth,  but  there  is  no  strength  to  bring  forth."  There  is  no 
advance  or  development,  nothing  but  dissension  and  dis- 
ruption, the  feeling  of  impotence  gnaws  upon  all.  That  is 
the  worst  disease  of  a  people,  its  heart  breaks  thereby  and  its 
spiritual  power  dies  of  it.  And  yet,  that  was  not  to  happen 
in  Judah;  even  if  heavy  burdens  settled  upon  it,  it  was  to  be 


Exile  and  Return,  Tradition  89 

roused  up  and  rise  again.  There  is  a  point  which  no  people 
suffers  to  be  injured,  for  which  it  struggles  with  all  the  energy 
of  its  soul,  for  the  defense  of  which  it  awakens  all  its  powers 
— that  point  is  its  vital  center.  Judah  was  assailed  at  its 
vital  center:  it  was  its  faith  that  was  to  be  broken  up  by  the 
inroads  of  Hellenism.  Then  a  struggle  ensued  for  its  very 
life,  and  Judaism  came  out  of  it  with  new-born  strength. 


VII. 

Hellenism,  Sadducees  and  Pharisees. 

The  history  of  the  world  lazily  and  quietly  passed  over 
the  new  Jewish  commonwealth  and  Society  for  several 
centuries  without  recording  any  particular  results.  *' Shall  a 
country  bring  forth  anew  in  one  day,  shall  a  nation  be  born 
at  once?'*  Thus  exclaims  the  great  prophet  of  that  time,  and 
we  repeat  his  words.  Many  centuries  pass  away  in  history 
with  apparent  stillness  while  yet,  in  the  deepest  parts  of  the 
popular  life,  lasting  work  is  accomplished  to  become  manifest 
in  due  time;  even  great  mundane  events  pass  by  certain 
sections  quite  unnoticeable,  and  it  seems  as  if  hardly  any 
traces  had  been  left  upon  them,  and  yet  impressions  were 
made,  and  they  become  visible  through  their  fruits  and  results 
as  soon  as  air  and  light  are  favorable,  as  soon  as  impulses  from 
within  are  pressing  forward.  Alexander  the  Macedonian 
established  his  vast  empire  in  which  portions  of  three  con- 
tinents were  united.  In  consequence  of  that  enterprise, 
Hellenism  was  spread  far  and  wide,  seeds  of  the  Grecian  spirit 
all  over  his  great  empire.  It  is  true,  Hellenism  as  it  was 
carried  over  the  world  by  the  armies  of  Alexander,  was  already 
exhausted  and  faded ;  Alexander  himself,  though  a  disciple  of 
Aristotle,  was  to  a  certain  extent  a  wild  graft  upon  the  olive 
tree  of  Hellenism;  and  whatever  he  intended  to  achieve  by 
the  force  of  his  arms,  was  undoubtedly  less  the  dissemination 
of  the  Grecian  spirit  than  the  subjection  of  nations  under  his 
rule.  At  any  rate,  a  Grecian  culture  went  along  with  him, 
which,  even  if  approaching  senility,  was  new  to  those  countries. 
His  empire  did  not  outlast  his  life;  it  broke  to  pieces  after  his 
death,  but  Grecian  states  maintained  their  existence  in  those 
regions  of  which  Palestine  formed  a  part.  The  visit  of 
Alexander  among  the  Jewish  people  is  pretty  well  wrapped  in 
legend.     His  presence  shook  the  whole  Orient;  his  name  shone 


Hellenism,  Sadducees  and  Pharisees  91 

everywhere  and  for  a  long  time;  nor  did  the  Jews  forget  him. 
They  remembered  him  as  a  ruler  who  was  not  unfriendly  to 
them,  who  even  met  the  reigning  High  Priest  with  humble 
reverence.  How  much  of  truth  there  may  be  in  all  that,  or 
how  much  embellishing  legend  may  have  added  to  it,  we  are 
now  unable  to  determine  clearly.  This  much  is  certain,  that 
Alexander's  campaigns  and  his  reign  did  not  influence  the 
development  of  Judaism  or  the  Jewish  people,  but  the  states 
that  were  formed  out  of  his  great  empire  and  were  also  founded 
on  Grecian  culture,  did  exert  their  influence  in  various  ways. 
Whenever  two  spiritual  powers  meet,  such  as  Hellenism 
and  Hebraism,  Greek  culture  and  Jewish  religion,  when  two 
such  spiritual  world-transforming  powers  come  into  contact 
with  each  other,  that  contact  must  necessarily  cause  new 
formations ;  something  new  will  grow  out  of  it,  be  it  the  result 
of  antagonistic  struggle  or  of  their  spiritual  interpenetration. 
New  creations  will  be  evolved,  bearing  either  the  character  of 
both,  or  pre-eminently  that  of  one  of  them,  yet  in  a  certain 
measure  impregnated  by  that  of  the  other.  The  clashing  of 
Hellenism  and  Judaism  produced  effects  in  two  ways.  In 
Egypt,  and  especially  in  Alexandria,  which  had  been  founded 
by  Alexander  as  a  city  of  refuge  and  which  soon  became  a 
free  center  of  Grecian  culture  in  Egypt,  a  country  that 
offered  a  field  deeply  furrowed  by  elements  of  culture,  ancient 
Grecian  culture  sprang  forth,  even  if  not  in  rejuvenated  form, 
as  a  kind  of  aftermath,  and  spread  mainly  among  the  higher 
class,  among  those  endowed  with  higher  intellect.  Grecian 
culture  became  there  a  new  element  of  life,  yet  without  being 
able  to  show  creative  effects  or  result  in  new,  sound  pro- 
ductions. In  that  new  Grecian  home,  dependence  upon  the 
ancient  mental  achievements  predominated,  learned  critical 
research  and  investigation,  an  endeavor  to  adopt  and  repro- 
duce the  external  form  of  ancient  science  and  learning,  a 
pedantic,  would-be  scholasticism  which  was  not  impregnated 
with  inborn,  scientific  impulse.  The  remnants  of  the  science 
of  that  time  which  have  been  preserved,  and  whatever  other 
information  on  that  subject  is  available  to  us  elsewhere, 
exhibit  no  fresh  living  spirit,  but  merely  an  endeavor  to 


92  Judaism  and  Its  History 

punctiliously  investigate  the  ancient  literature,  to  squeeze  its 
letter  and  to  gnaw  at  its  bone.  And  yet,  Alexandrianism 
spread  manifold  culture. 

Here  again,  we  behold  a  remarkable  trait  in  Judaism, 
guaranteeing  its  importance.  Wherever  a  new  culture  springs 
up,  where  the  mind  develops  itself  untrammeled,  where  a  fresh 
nationality  or  a  fresh  spiritual  development  is  manifested, 
there  Judaism  quickly  joins  the  movement  and  its  professors 
soon  adopt  the  new  culture,  digest  it,  and  regard  the  country 
which  offers  them  the  highest  boon  of  life,  mental  and  spiritual 
liberty,  as  their  home.  As  a  healthy  plant  longs  for  air  and 
light  and  winds,  and  climbs  up  to  them  through  all  kinds  of 
obstacles,  so  also  does  Judaism.  It  requires  air  and  light, 
and  wherever  those  are  granted  to  it,  there  is  its  home,  there 
it  feels  as  in  its  own  native  land,  as  though  it  had  been  natural- 
ized there  for  centuries  past.  Such  is  man's  superiority  over 
the  brute  creation  that  he  is  not  limited  to  certain  spots  of 
the  world  for  the  selection  of  his  abode,  that  he  may  establish 
himself  wherever  life  may  be  developed,  wherever  organic 
beings  may  exist;  he  is  the  lord  of  the  earth,  unlike  the  brute 
that  is  confined  to  a  certain  region.  Judaism,  in  that  respect, 
shows  its  comprehensively  human  character ;  it  can  acclimatize 
itself  everywhere,  carry  its  seeds  and  participate  in  the 
popular  life  everywhere,  and  especially  where  higher  culture 
can  spiritually  transform  also  the  substratum. 

In  a  word,  the  Jews  had  soon  established  a  new  home  in 
Egypt.  Whether  they  emigrated  thither  with  Alexander,  or 
whether  some  refugees  had  already  gone  there  with  Jeremiah 
after  the  dissolution  of  the  Jewish  commonwealth  and  came 
then  more  into  prominence  by  reason  of  freer  opportunity  for 
development,  we  will  not  investigate;  they  were  there,  fully 
nationalized  and  naturalized.  Soon  the  Grecian  language 
was  their  speech  which  they  used,  not  only  in  their  daily  life, 
but  also  the  language  of  their  religion,  the  Jewish  religion. 
They  went  so  far  that  they  erected  at  Leontopolis,  a  city  in 
the  district  of  Heliopolis,  a  temple  which  was  a  copy  of  the 
Temple  at  Jerusalem,  not  with  the  intention  of  seceding  from 
Jerusalem  and  breaking  off  connection  with  their  mother 


Hellenism,  Sadducees  and  Pharisees  93 

country,  but  moved  by  the  full  consciousness  that  they 
belonged  entirely  to  the  country  in  which  they  lived  and 
desired  to  fully  gratify  their  religious  wants  there.  That 
temple  was  called  after  its  founder,  the  temple  of  Onias,  and 
it  was  considered  perfectly  proper,  and  even  in  Palestine  it 
was  not  pronounced  idolatrous.  The  temple  was  the  visible 
housing,  but  far  above  that  was  the  spirit,  the  doctrine ;  and 
that  too  must  needs  be  made  accessible  to  them  in  Hellenism, 
in  the  Grecian  language.  That  a  translation  of  the  bible  and 
the  pentateuch  was  made  for  a  Greco-Egyptian  prince,  one 
of  the  Ptolemies,  is  but  legendary  glorification.  The  people 
felt  the  urgent  necessity  of  becoming  fully  possessed  of  the 
bible,  their  written  sanctuary,  in  the  Grecian  language. 
Although  they  had  not  yet  altogether  been  estranged  from 
the  Hebrew,  when  the  translation  was  made,  they  were  no 
longer  so  much  at  home  and  versed  in  it  that  they  could  have 
readily  read  and  understood  the  book  which  was  to  furnish 
them  the  bread  and  water  of  life ;  the  Grecian  language  was  to 
bring  it  home  to  them. 

We  have  here  the  first  instance  in  history  of  the  translation 
of  a  book.  The  Hebrew  bible  was  translated  into  the 
Grecian  language,  and  that  translation  is  still  extant  under 
the  name  of  The  Septuagint  Version  (70).  Embellishing 
legend  tells  us  that  seventy  elders  had  translated  the  book, 
each  one  of  them  separated  from  the  others,  yet  all  agreed 
completely,  and  it  was  thereby  shown  that  the  translators 
had  worked  under  inspiration.  In  such  manner,  legend 
glorified  that  version,  not  only  among  the  Greco-Egyptians, 
but  the  same  story  is  given  to  us  in  the  writings  of  Palestine 
and  in  the  Talmudic  accounts;  proof  sufficient,  to  show  what 
authority  and  reverence  that  work  enjoyed,  even  outside  of 
Egypt.  Yet,  that  version  could  not  escape  the  influence  of 
the  local  spirit;  it  clings  closely  to  the  letter  of  Holy  Writ, 
fully  rendered  its  meaning  as  the  translators  understood  it, 
but  it  has  also  alterations  such  as  were  demanded  by  the 
conditions  of  that  country.  Aside  from  such  variations  as 
were  due  to  local  conditions,  due  consideration  was  given  to 
religious  and  philosophical  views.     In  order  to  afford  a  glance 


94  Judaism  and  Its  History 

into  the  manner  of  variation  of  the  first  class — influence  of  the 
local  spirit — we  may  adduce  as  an  example,  how  the  trans- 
lators took  care  not  to  give  offence  to  the  reigning  dynasty 
or  to  popular  prejudice.  Among  the  animals  prohibited  as 
food,  the  hare  is  named.  The  Hebrew  term  would  have 
required  the  equivalent  word  lagos  in  the  Grecian  version; 
but  as  the  royal  family  was  called  "the  Family  of  the  Lagi," 
the  mention  of  that  name  as  that  of  an  unclean  animal  in  the 
law-book  of  the  Jews  would  have  given  offence.  They 
changed  it  and  used  a  word  which  signifies  "hairy-footed"  or 
"thick-footed,"  a  word  which  they  coined  to  avoid  giving 
offence.  Asses  for  riding  were  used  by  the  lowest  classes  only ; 
in  the  bible  they  are  often  mentioned  as  the  customary  riding 
animal.  The  translators  did  not  use  the  word,  fearing  to 
excite  scorn  and  derision.  But  also  with  regard  to  law  and 
religion,  they  carefully  avoided  all  expressions  that  might 
give  offence  to  the  critical  mind  of  those  Grecians,  especially 
all  figurative  expressions  for  God,  which  are  permissible  in 
Holy  Writ  as  innocent,  poetical  terms,  but  would  have 
appeared  strange  in  the  eyes  of  those  sober-minded  critics. 
Such  infiltration  of  Grecian  language  and  culture  pro- 
ceeded more  and  more,  without  shaking  the  Jewish-religious 
views  of  the  community.  Knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  language 
gradually  decreased ;  that  language  which  is  the  depository  of 
the  Jewish  religious  conviction,  which  breathes  forth  the 
religious  idea  in  its  freshness,  was  gradually  neglected  and 
forgotten  by  the  Greco-Egyptian  Jews,  so  that  even  their 
most  distinguished  scholars,  such  as  Philo,  had  but  a  school- 
boy knowledge  of  it.  Even  at  a  later  time,  during  the  second 
and  third  centuries  after  the  Christian  era,  when  a  large 
portion  of  the  Grecian  Jews  had  changed  into  another  religion, 
while  the  faithful  remnants  of  them  more  firmly  embraced 
the  Hebrew,  Palestinian  Judaism,  the  want  of  a  Grecian 
version  of  the  bible  was  felt.  Then  it  was  noticed  that  the 
ancient  version  corresponded  too  little  to  the  original  text, 
a  more  faithful,  closer  adherence  to  it  was  demanded — but 
yet,  a  translation  could  not  be  dispensed  with.  Hence,  new 
Grecian  versions  had  to  be  essayed,  although  the  Hebrew  was 


Hellenism,  Sadducees  and  Pharisees  95 

then  again  more  generally  known  among  them.  Such  trans- 
lations were  not  undertaken  in  ancient  times  with  the  view 
to  furnishing  a  work  of  art  to  be  handed  down  to  posterity, 
but  because  the  demand  for  them  proceeded  from  the  very 
soul  and  heart  of  the  time.  Three  bible  translators  of  that 
time  are  mentioned:  Aquila,  Theodotion,  and  Symmachus; 
fragments  of  their  versions  are  still  extant.  Even  the  teachers 
of  the  Talmud  praised  them  for  their  work,  and  the  bible 
verse,  ^'God  shall  enlarge  Japhet  and  he  shall  dwell  in  the 
tents  of  Shem,"  was  expounded  according  to  the  manner  of 
paraphrasing  then  usual,  to  mean,  "The  beauty  of  Japhet 
shall  dwell  in  the  tents  of  Shem,  the  grace  of  Hellenism  shall 
acquire  a  home  also  in  the  tents  of  Semitism,"  a  verse  which 
has  been  perverted  and  misused  also  by  others  in  various 
ways.  For  when  Christianity  became  predominant  at  a  later 
day,  the  verse  was  interpreted  to  mean,  "God  shall  enlarge 
Japhet  so  that  he  shall  dwell  in  the  tents  of  Shem,  Japhet  is 
the  heir  of  Shem  and  will  become  the  new  Israel";  and  in  our 
day  it  has  been  asserted  with  more  checkered  ornament  than 
plain  truth  that  the  ancient  Shem  must  be  polished  by 
the  culture  of  the  race  of  Japhet.  But  enough  of  that! 
Grecian  life  and  spirit  entered  deep  into  Jewry,  and  out  of 
later  periods  yet,  it  is  reported  that  a  teacher  of  the  Talmud 
heard  congregations  using  the  Grecian  language  when  re- 
citing the  Shemang  portion  of  the  prayers  [the  confession 
of  the  Divine  Unity.  Deut.  vi,  4-9.]  You  perceive  from  such 
examples  of  Antiquity  that  an  enlightened  nationality  which 
exerts  its  mighty  influence  upon  the  minds  of  men,  leaves  its 
traces  also  upon  the  religious  life  of  Judaism,  and  that  the 
professors  of  Judaism,  though  remaining  faithfully  attached 
to  their  religion,  nevertheless  identified  themselves  with  the 
manners  and  the  language  of  the  country  in  which  they  lived. 
While  Alexandrianism,  as  a  scholastic  science  of  Antiquity, 
exhibits  neither  freshness  nor  vigor,  it  is  the  more  significant 
that  it  acted  within  Judaism  as  a  motive  power,  as  a  germ  for 
new  creations.  The  desire  arose  to  blend  the  Jewish  inheri- 
tance with  the  newly  acquired  knowledge  to  heighten  the 
truths  of  Judaism  by  the  addition  of  Grecian  culture,  to 


96  Judaism  and  Its  History 

harmonize  both  possessions  so  that  each  should  make  the 
lustre  of  the  other  shine  the  more  clearly  and  brightly.  The 
most  various  literary  productions  were  the  result  of  that 
desire,  although  there  is  not  one  of  them  of  special  value. 
A  fruit  of  an  earnest,  spiritual  struggle,  was  the  ^'Alexandrian 
Jewish  Philosophy.'*  In  the  domain  of  philosophy,  a  severe 
spiritual  struggle  and  peculiar  results  were  bound  to  be  pro- 
duced by  the  clashing  of  Judaism  and  Hellenism.  Directly 
antagonistic  as  they  were  to  each  other,  a  compromise  must 
needs  be  effected  between  them.  Judaism  starts  with  self- 
evidence,  with  inward  experience  and  living  conviction  for 
which  no  proof  is  required,  which  can  not  be  fully  proven. 
On  the  contrary,  Hellenism  starts  with  investigation,  with 
human  research,  rising  from  the  physical  to  reach  by  analysis 
and  combination,  the  Higher  Idea.  Those  are  two  different 
processes  diverging  not  only  in  their  progress,  but  in  their 
whole  conception !  And  those  two  directly  antagonistic  views 
clashed  against  each  other.  But  there  was  also  in  Hellenism 
a  philosophical  school  which,  though  born  of  the  Greek  spirit, 
nevertheless  endeavored  to  apprehend  by  a  certain  prophetic- 
poetic  effort  the  Higher,  thence  to  descend  to  the  Lower,  and 
assumed  that  in  similar  manner,  the  former  descended  into 
lower  planes.  It  also  attempts  to  directly  conceive  the 
Divine,  the  Ideal,  by  intuition,  by  higher  perception.  By 
such  bold  flight,  Plato  conceived  the  everlasting  Good,  the 
everlasting  Beautiful,  whence  individual  ideals  evolve  them- 
selves, which  as  archetypes — ^we  are  not  told  whether  they 
have  an  actual  existence  or  must  be  regarded  as  mere  pictures 
of  the  spirit — are  expressed  in  real  objects,  perfect  in  them- 
selves, while  the  several  visible  objects  represent  them  only 
in  their  limitations.  That  was  a  system  which  especially 
suited  the  philosophizing  Jews.  It  afforded  them  a  bridge 
between  the  purely  Spiritual  and  the  physical  objects.  How 
does  the  Highest  Spirit,  the  eternally  Perfect  One,  enter  into 
the  finite  world?  He  creates  ideals  from  Hjmself,  says  Plato 
— He  introspects  Himself,  and  thus  Perfection  is  produced; 
and  that  Perfection  impresses  itself  in  more  subordinate 
existences  and  thus  it  descends  from  intermediate  causes  to 


Hellenism,  Sadducees  and  Pharisees  97 

intermediate  causes,  until  the  real  objects  spring  into  existence 
and  Creation  becomes  manifest  to  us.  God,  the  Eternal 
Existence,  the  eternally  Perfect,  is  the  highest  cause ;  but  the 
eternally  Pure  One  does  not  immediately  come  into  contact 
with  the  impure — only  by  means  of  manifold  emanations  and 
concatenations,  the  earthly  grows  into  existence. 

Such  views  were  agreeable  to  the  Grecian  Jews  who  had 
enjoyed  a  philosophic  education.  They  afforded  them  a 
happy  means  of  preserving  the  incomprehensibility  and 
unrepresentability  of  God,  and  yet  of  accepting  the  different 
figurative  expressions  concerning  God  in  the  bible,  because 
they  could  refer  those  to  the  subordinate  existences.  Hellen- 
ism of  that  time,  stiff  and  sober  as  it  was,  was  unable  to 
descend  into  naive  poetical  imageries  and  to  admit  them  as 
poetical  expression,  without  marring  the  sublimity  of  the 
thought.  The  letter  was  tenaciously  clung  to,  and  whenever 
it  was  too  sensible  and  corporeal,  it  had  to  yield  to  forced 
interpretation.  And  by  such  the  narratives  and  commands 
of  the  bible,  too,  were  forced  from  their  natural  simplicity  into 
artificial  philosophical  propositions,  in  the  belief  that  their 
value  would  thus  be  enhanced ;  the  symbolic  method  of  inter- 
pretation is  the  product  of  the  Jewish -Alexandrian  spirit.  The 
figurative  expressions  and  events  in  connection  with  God  were 
referred  to  such  subordinate  spirits  as  had  evolved  themselves 
from  God.  In  the  writings  of  Philo,  the  most  distinguished 
philosopher  of  the  Jewish -Alexandrian  period,  and  perhaps 
also  in  those  of  all  earlier  authors  whose  works  have  been  lost, 
that  doctrine  is  comprised  in  the  ''Logos.'"  Philo  is  a  believ- 
ing, zealous  Jew ;  he  is  fully  convinced  of  the  truth  of  Judaism 
which,  for  him,  requires  no  proof;  with  the  most  intense  love, 
he  devotes  himself  to  an  examination  of  the  doctrines  of 
Judaism,  he  conceives  its  moral  spirit  in  the  noblest  purity, 
but  he  is  just  as  completely  possessed  by  symbolical  interpre- 
tation, and  the  fudamental  character  of  the  Jewish-Alexandrian 
philosophy  converges,  in  his  system,  in  the  "Logos."  That 
term  means,  in  Greek,  both  ''thought'' — as  Philo  understands 
it — and  "wordy  The  Logos  is  the  demiurgos,  the  creator  of 
the  world;  it  was  the  first  creation  of  God,  emanating  from 


98  Judaism  and  Its  History 

Him  as  thought,  as  a  pure  idea;  as  a  force  emanating  from 
God,  it  then  produces  the  world  and  sustains  it  as  animating 
and  transforming  energy.  Such  was  the  compromise  which 
Judaism  made  with  Hellenism.  The  Jewish-Alexandrian 
philosophy  is  the  mother  of  numerous  systems  of  philosophy 
that  prevailed  throughout  the  Middle  Ages;  it  is  one  of  the 
factors  in  the  creation  of  a  new  Religion,  at  the  very  beginning 
of  which  it  exerted  a  highly  important  influence  upon  its 
formation,  and  surrounded  it  with  a  certain  halo,  illuminated 
it  with  a  certain  mystic-philosophic  lustre. 

That  was  one  way  in  which  the  contact  of  Judaism  and 
Hellenism  produced  new  effects. 

But  in  another  country  also,  Hellenism  clashed  with 
Judaism,  and  that  was  in  Palestine  itself.  While  the  Egyptian 
Commonwealth  was  filled  with  true  civilization,  the  Syrio- 
Grecian  Commonwealth  seems  to  have  been  at  a  much 
lower  stage  of  culture.  Only  a  purely  outward  civilization 
existed  there,  a  mere  varnish  without  affecting  the  inside; 
not  a  trace  remains  to  show  that  a* purely  Grecian  mode  of 
thinking,  or  any  product  thereof  existed  there.  But  the 
more  half-refinement,  the  more  fanaticism,  the  less  inner 
worth  there  is,  the  more  will  outward  forms  be  valued. 
Whenever  religion  is  not  a  true  inward  power,  wherever  na- 
tional life  is  not  actually  borne  by  an  idea,  the  people  will  be 
seized  with  the  zealous  desire  to  establish  an  apparent  outward 
unity,  and  one  of  the  ways  to  effect  that  is  the  attempt  to 
bring  about  apparent  religious  unity  within  the  commonwealth. 
As  we  find  in  later  times,  that  desire  expressed  as  endeavor 
for  a  German-Christian  State,  so  we  meet  in  Asia  with 
the  design  to  establish  a  Pagan-Hellenic  Realm.  Palestine 
was  under  Syrian  sovereignty,  it  should  now  become  part 
of  that  Pagan-Hellenic  State.  Judaism  had  thus  far,  in  the 
course  of  its  second  political  existence,  suffered  many  trials 
and  tribulations — it  endured  them  quietly,  now  and  then 
with  a  shriek  of  complaint,  yet  there  was  never  a  forceful 
popular  endeavor  to  throw  off  the  oppression.  But  now,  its 
very  innermost  heart  had  been  touched,  the  time  had  arrived 
that  called  for  answer  to  the  question:    To  be  or  not  to  be? 


Hellenism,  Sadducees  and  Pharisees  99 

Not  all  showed  a  readiness  to  enter  upon  the  contest. 
Those  who  stood  at  the  head  of  the  people,  the  priests,  the 
Sons  of  Zadok,  are  said  not  to  have  been  filled  with  glowing 
zeal  to  undertake  the  contest ;  they  thought  to  be  able  to  cast 
a  spell  upon  the  approaching  storm  by  subterfuges.  The 
statue  of  Jupiter  should  be  placed  in  the  Temple;  it  was  put 
up  there.  Contributions  should  be  paid  to  the  Temple  of 
Hercules;  they  were  paid.  Gymnasiums,  that  is  to  say,  not 
schools  for  instruction,  but  places  for  the  peculiar  Greek 
athletic  games,  should  be  established  in  Judea  in  order  to 
introduce  and  exhibit  Grecian  manners  and  amusements;  that 
was  done.  In  every  way,  obedience  was  yielded  to  the  ruler, 
perhaps  to  ward  off  the  storm  from  cowardice  and  lack  of 
spirit,  with  the  sole  aim  of  self-preservation.  But  the  heart 
of  the  people  could  not  endure  it;  and  being  deserted  by  its 
leaders,  it  was  compelled  to  undertake  from  its  own  ranks 
its  defense  against  foreign  oppression  which  designed  not  only 
to  destroy  its  earthly  home,  but  to  rob  it  also  of  its  spiritual 
realm.  A  small  band  collected  under  the  leadership  of  the 
Hasmoneans,  a  high-minded,  priestly  family,  made  resistance, 
found  adherents;  the  enthusiasm  spread,  the  oppressor  had 
to  retreat,  and  in  consequence  of  the  insurrection,  there  arose 
from  the  distracted  little  commonwealth  a  valorous,  inde- 
pendent State  which  lasted  much  longer  than  could  have  been 
expected  under  the  circumstances.  Hellenism  and  Judaism 
had  measured  their  strength  against  each  other — it  is  true,  it 
was  faded  and  enervated  Hellenism  against  Judaism  not  yet 
grown  to  its  full  strength — and  yet  the  latter  gained  the 
victory  and  survived,  whereas  the  Syrian  Empire  perished 
after  a  short  and  morbid  existence. 

In  such  times,  when  the  innermost  parts  of  the  popular 
heart  are  stirred  up,  the  popular  energies  also  are  roused  from 
their  deepest  hiding  places,  spiritual  life  is  mightily  and 
speedily  developed.  Quiet  reigned  for  centuries;  all  at  once 
a  noisy  bustle  appears,  the  stirring  motive  power  is  perceived 
producing  new  creations,  or  rather  driving  freshly  invigorated 
tendencies.  Even  at  the  establishment  of  the  Second  Com- 
monwealth, various  parties  had  sprung  into  existence.     At 


100  Judaism  and  Its  History 

the  head  of  the  people,  as  leader  of  the  first  band  of  returning 
emigrants  from  the  captivity,  there  was  a  descendant  of  the 
family  of  Zadok,  a  branch  of  the  priestly  race.  The  ancestor 
of  that  family  had  enjoyed  high  honor  as  High  Priest  of  the 
Temple  of  Solomon;  his  descendants  had  uninterruptedly 
exercised  the  priestly  function  in  that  Temple  at  Jerusalem. 
By  the  side  of  that  descendant  of  the  family  of  Zadok,  Joshua, 
the  son  of  Jozadok — there  was  also  a  descendant  of  the  House 
of  David,  Zerubbabel,  the  son  of  Shealtiel.  These  two 
together  were  at  the  head  of  affairs,  and  they  and  their 
immediate  descendants  remained  at  the  head  of  the  nation. 
But  the  nation  was  neither  then  nor  afterwards  independent; 
at  first  it  was  under  the  sovereignty  of  Persia,  then  of  Egypt, 
and  later  of  Syria,  till  the  contest  began.  By  those  sovereigns, 
satraps  were  sent,  and  they  were  the  actual  rulers  of  the  land. 
A  native  king  or  prince  directing  the  administration  of  the 
civic  and  political  affairs  of  the  people,  was  scarcely  tolerated, 
and  if  tolerated  at  all,  his  power  was  so  insignificant  that  his 
authority  soon  vanished.  It  was  otherwise  with  the  High 
Priest  who  represented  their  religious  life ;  his  office  being  the 
only  homesprung  one  with  the  holiness  of  his  functions  super- 
added, his  authority  increased  more  and  more,  and  he  soon 
united  with  power,  all  that  remained  of  native,  secular 
authority.  That  time  was  the  only  period  in  the  history  of 
Judaism  when,  to  a  certain  extent,  there  existed  a  hierarchy, 
when  a  real  priestly  rule  prevailed,  and  it  proved  itself  pitiful 
enough.  The  family  of  the  priests  was  that  of  the  Zadokites. 
The  people  that  had  returned  were  full  of  enthusiasm  to 
restore  their  nationality,  clung  with  all  their  might  to  those 
whom  they  regarded  as  their  chiefs,  especially  the  religious 
representatives  of  the  nation:  they  reverently  attached  them- 
selves to  the  priests.  The  determination  to  preserve  their 
ancient  customs  was  uppermost  in  their  minds  at  that  time. 
The  Temple  and  Temple  service,  the  priesthood  connected 
therewith,  the  contributions  to  the  Temple  and  priests  con- 
stituted the  center  of  their  religious  life  and  occupied  the 
mind  of  the  zealous  part  of  the  people.  But  they  found  in 
the  territory  of  Palestine,  various  elements  that  had  in  the 


Hellenism,  Sadducees  and  PHARii?^^E^\  J    ;>  loi*- :!/  i\i 

meantime  settled  there  and  who  were  either  not  at  all  in 
sympathy  with  the  Jewish  faith,  or  were  only  lukewarm  in 
their  support.  The  more  zealous  portion  of  those  that  had 
returned  and  their  adherents  separated  themselves  from  those 
of  mixed  descent,  and  were  on  that  account  called  "Separat- 
ists," or  "men  separating  from  the  nations  of  the  country 
and  their  uncleanness,"  and  they  stuck  closely  to  their  chiefs 
and  leaders.  The  other  portion  of  the  people  were  called 
"the  People  of  the  Country";  they  were  the  inhabitants  who 
had  either  not  accepted  the  Jewish  faith,  or  had  only  ancient, 
dim  recollections  of  it,  or  were  converts,  proselytes,  strangers. 
For  such  were  readily  accepted,  even  if  they  would  not  rigor- 
ously adhere  to  all  the  precepts  which  the  Separatists  regarded 
as  binding  upon  themselves. 

It  is  a  current  phrase  that  Judaism  is  opposed  to  prose- 
lytism.  That  is  partially  true  but  only  so  far  as  the  phrase 
is  understood  in  its  true  meaning.  Every  religion  which  is 
convinced  of  its  truth  not  only  for  a  limited  circle,  but  for  all 
mankind,  must  exert  itself  to  spread  over  the  whole  human 
race.  If  it  would  confine  itself  within  the  narrow  limits  of 
the  ground  it  occupies  for  the  time  being,  address  itself  only 
to  those  that  are  born  to  it,  who  belong  to  a  certain  country, 
who  have  a  distinct  history  of  their  own,  then  it  ceases  to  bear 
the  characteristic  attribute  of  true  Religion;  then  it  has 
become  a  mere  sect,  it  is  no  longer  that  breath  of  life,  which, 
intended  for  all  men,  should  spread  over  all  humanity. 
Judaism,  on  the  contrary,  was  the  very  first  to  speak  of 
proselytism;  it  was  the  first  that  recognized  the  strangers 
that  join  themselves  to  the  Lord  and  who  were  received  into 
all  its  rights  and  privileges,  whereas  Antiquity  elsewhere 
recognized  only  that  citizen  who  was  in  the  country  and  had 
grown  up  on  its  soil.  The  stranger  remained  always  a 
stranger  until  perhaps  he  became  identified  with  the  nation  in 
succeeding  generations  or  citizenship  was  especially  con- 
ferred upon  him.  Judaism  broke  down  the  barriers  of  narrow 
nationality;  it  is  not  birth  that  makes  the  Jew,  but  conviction, 
the  profession  of  faith,  and  he  also  who  is  not  born  of  Jewish 
parents  but  accepts  the  true  faith,  becomes  a  Jew,  fully 


i;0^  Judaism  and  Its  History 

entitled  to  all  rights  and  privileges.  Proselytism  in  the  more 
exalted  meaning  of  the  term,  conveying  the  idea  that  the 
conviction  of  those  hitherto  strangers  is  accepted,  because 
they  have  declared  to  be  in  agreement  with  the  principles — 
that  kind  of  proselytism  is  an  offspring  of  Judaism.  Of  course, 
"making  proselytes,"  mere  change  of  form,  use  of  violence  to 
force  affectation  of  belief  without  conviction  by  means  of  the 
innate  power  of  truth — such  a  kind  of  proselytism  is  an 
abomination  in  the  sight  of  Judaism — it  is  opposed  to  it. 

Accordingly,  strangers  or  proselytes  constituted  a  large 
portion  of  the  people  at  that  period. 

Even  at  the  beginning,  long  before  the  outbreak  of  the 
Syrian  war,  some  disagreements  arose  between  the  several 
portions  of  the  people.  The  Zadokites,  the  princes,  and 
priests  became — as  it  naturally  is  in  the  character  of  such 
hereditary  dignity  and  especially  when  joined  with  the  attri- 
bute of  holiness — more  and  more  narrow-minded,  sought  to 
identify  the  whole  range  of  religion  with  themselves,  they 
gradually  ceased  to  be  the  ministers  and  servants  of  religion, 
religion  was  to  serve  them.  On  the  other  hand,  the  Sepa- 
ratists, the  sound  and  vigorous  body  of  the  citizens,  regarded 
the  priests  and  ruler  their  representatives  only  insofar  as  they 
truly  watched  over  their  religious  and  political  life;  but  as 
soon  as  they  made  their  own  personal  interests  paramount  to 
the  claims  of  Religion  and  the  Commonwealth,  the  Sepa- 
ratists, the  best  body  of  the  citizens,  were  in  opposition  to  the 
Zadokites.  Then,  when  the  great  struggle  began,  and  the 
reigning  families  showed  themselves  lukewarm,  while  the 
middfe  class  resisted  with  all  strength  and  enthusiasm,  such 
disagreements  grouped  the  people  in  distinctly  separate 
parties.  The  Zadokites,  the  Sadducees^  the  descendants  of 
the  priest  estate  in  connection  with  the  families  of  rank,  con- 
stituted one  party;  the  Separatists,  the  Pharisees ^  as  they  were 
designated  in  the  Aramaic  vernacular,  were  the  other  party. 
The  Hasmonean  or  Maccabee  family,  supported  by  the  citi- 
zens, crowded  the  Zadokite  dynasty  from  the  throne  and  took 
possession  of  both  the  throne  and  the  altar.  The  Hasmonean 
family  attained  to  the  office  of  princes  and  high  priests,  partly 


Hellenism,  Sadducees  and  Pharisees  103 

through  their  own  merits  as  leaders,  but  chiefly  by  their  close 
alliance  and  action  with  the  solid  mass  of  the  middle  class  of 
the  people.  But  here  too,  we  see  a  general  historic  phenom- 
enon repeated.  A  new  dynasty  makes  every  effort  to  rally 
the  ancient  nobility  around  it.  The  Sadducees  were  the  old 
nobility;  the  differences  between  the  new  kings  and  priests 
and  the  descendants  of  those  who  had  formerly  held  those 
offices,  were  soon  reconciled;  the  Sadducees  became  the 
courtiers,  the  nobility  of  the  new  royal  court,  and  that  clung 
to  the  noblemen  as  the  party  powerful  through  its  hereditary 
dignity.  And  that  produced  a  still  more  serious  struggle 
between  the  Sadducees  and  the  Pharisees ;  the  reigning  dynasty 
tried  to  please  first  one  party  and  then  the  other,  but  on  the 
whole  yielded  to  the  designs  of  the  nobility. 

It  was  a  religio-political  fight  that  had  started  between  the 
Sadducees  and  the  Pharisees,  so  that  the  chasm  widened  more 
and  more;  a  religio-political  fight  in  which,  so  far  as  that  period 
is  concerned,  it  is  hard  to  discern  which  element  predominated, 
the  political  or  the  religious.  On  the  religious  side,  the  chief 
point  of  difference  of  the  Pharisees  is  this,  that  they  objected 
to  having  the  sanctity  of  the  priesthood  placed  so  much  in 
the  foreground.  A  sentence  in  the  Second  Book  of  the  Macca- 
bees, which  belongs  to  that  period,  most  distinctly  expresses 
that  sentiment,  saying:  "  Unto  all  are  given  the  heritage,  the 
kingdom,  the  priesthood,  and  the  sanctuary."  All  the  people 
should  be  regarded  as  priestly  and  holy,  was  the  contention  of 
the  Pharisees;  of  course,  there  were  especial  priestly  func- 
tions and  rules  that  could  not  be  disputed,  but  the  whole 
people  was  to  be  raised  to  sanctification,  should  be  formed  into 
a  holy,  priestly  establishment.  In  that  way,  burdens  were 
made  for  the  whole  people,  ordinances  which  were  to  make 
them  priests  as  much  as  it  could  be  done.  If  certain  precepts 
concerning  cleanness  and  uncleanness  were  observed  by  the 
priests,  all  the  people  should  observe  them  with  equal  care; 
if  certain  ablutions  at  the  holy  sacrificial  ministrations  were 
prescribed  for  the  priests,  all  the  people  were  to  eat  their 
ordinary  meals  after  the  same  preparation:  "every-day  fruit 
with  the  holiness  of  the  sanctuary."     If  the  Temple  was  the 


104  Judaism  and  Its  History 

place  for  the  priests  where  they  performed  the  sacrificial 
service  and  if  the  sacrificial  repasts  constituted  a  religious  act 
aff"ording  to  the  body  of  the  priests  an  opportunity  of  assem- 
bling together,  in  like  manner  the  people  got  their  side- 
temples,  their  synagogues,  which,  though  not  intended  to 
supplant  the  Temple,  should  serve  as  people's  temples  at 
which  they  also  had  their  communion  repasts  that  were  to  be 
considered  a  sacred  function.  The  repast  was  prepared  for 
by  ablution  which  consecrated  the  meat,  wine  was  a  substitute 
for  the  drink  offering,  and  frankincense  was  not  wanting, 
either.  The  holiness  of  those  repasts  was  yet  heightened  by 
prayers,  and  thus  every  man  became  a  priest  to  a  certain 
extent.  Thus  the  design  of  the  Pharisees  to  acquire  the 
character  of  priests  called  the  great  institution  of  Houses  of 
God  into  existence.  The  institution  of  Prayer  is  a  fruit  of 
that  design  which  now  and  then  was  rather  one-sided  and 
unbalanced,  but  yet  contained  many  sound  and  vigorous 
creations.  But  there  were  also  many  arrangements  fixed  that 
were  burdensome,  and  of  which  some  are  still  observed  and 
others  are  flitting  about  as  the  shadows  of  the  past.  For 
instance,  the  ceremony  of  bidding  farewell  to  the  departing 
Sabbath  with  wine  and  spices,  is  a  survival  out  of  that  period 
of  popular  desire  to  observe  priestly  practices. 

In  all  matters  where  religious  or  secular  matters  called  for 
a  decision,  the  Sadducees  and  the  Pharisees  came  into  col- 
lision. The  Pharisees  succeeded  in  getting  into  their  hands 
the  management  of  all  the  institutions  that  were  of  great 
importance  in  the  popular  life.  The  arrangement  of  the 
calendar  and  the  judiciary  were  taken  out  of  the  hands  of  the 
priests,  and  the  People,  the  Learned,  attended  to  all  that. 
The  "People,"  the  "Learned,"  we  say;  for  the  names  "Phari- 
sees" and  "Sadducees"  were  used  more  by  the  respective 
opponents  than  by  the  parties  themselves.  The  Sadducees 
called  themselves  "the  Sons  of  the  Noble  Families,"  or  "the 
Sons  of  the  Priests,"  while  their  opponents  called  them 
"Zadokites,"  "Sadducees,"  which  conveys  no  idea  of  con- 
tempt, but  was  intended  to  designate  them  by  a  mere  family 
name  as  denial  of  any  special  nobility.     In  like  manner,  the 


Hellenism,  Sadducees  and  Pharisees  105 

Separatists  called  themselves  "the  Learned"  or  "the  Fellows 
of  the  Society,"  who  advocated  self-sanctification ;  their 
opponents  called  them  by  their  ancient  name  "Pharisees," 
which  was  no  disgracing  expression,  but  simply  ignored  their 
claims  to  especial  learning  and  holiness.  Only  later  times 
sought  to  asperse  ignominy  upon  that  appellation. 

Thus  a  great  division  had  arisen  within  Judah;  and  that 
division  increased  and  produced  mighty  internal  transforma- 
tions. 


VIII. 

Sadducees  and  Pharisees,  The  World 
to  Come,  Hillel. 

The  difficulty  of  presenting  and  looking  at  a  past  age 
according  to  its  inner  motives  and  impulses  is  great  enough 
in  itself,  but  it  is  very  much  increased  when  we  are  without 
contemporary  records  which  might  by  their  mere  existence 
reveal  to  us  what  the  people  of  that  time  thought  and  what 
they  strove  for,  and  how  certain  events  came  to  happen. 
Even  the  most  faithful  accounts  given  by  a  later  time  view 
the  conditions  and  events  from  their  own  standpoint,  involun- 
tarily or  intentionally  color  them  with  their  partisanship,  or 
misrepresent  things  from  want  of  a  true  conception  of  the 
past.  If  unimportant  periods  of  time  are  hidden  behind  a 
misty  veil,  we  might  pass  by  them  with  indifference  and  leave 
them  to  the  industry  of  the  antiquarian  curiosity  seeker  or  to 
bold,  combinative  criticism.  But  just  such  periods  are 
sometimes  the  very  ones  that  have  shaped  a  long  line  of 
succeeding  centuries.  Although  we  may  know  little  of  them, 
they  have  left  deep  traces  behind ;  their  creations  and  events 
have  exerted  an  influence  lasting  for  all  times;  and  if  we  wish 
to  gain  a  clear  understanding  of  ourselves,  of  what  we  are, 
and  how  we  became  such,  it  can  not  be  a  matter  of  indifference 
to  us,  thoroughly  to  understand  the  source  from  which  we 
have  sprung,  to  know  the  very  foundation  whence  the  Present 
has  grown.  The  ideas  entertained,  the  events  that  happened 
in  Judea  two  thousand  years  ago,  the  conflict  of  the  Sadducees 
and  Pharisees,  and  the  results  produced  by  that  conflict, 
exerted  their  efl^ect  upon  later  centuries,  are  of  great 
importance  in  the  world's  history,  and  exert  their  influence 
unto  this  day.  That  very  influence  is  it  to  which  we  some- 
times yield,  against  which  we  struggle  at  other  times,  which 


The  World  to  Come,  Hillel  107 

is  now  the  foundation  on  which  we  stand,  and  then  again  is 
the  barrier  the  limit  of  which  we  feel  and  strive  to  break 
down. 

If  we  desire  to  gain  a  conclusive  judgment  concerning  the 
most  important  questions  of  the  Past  as  well  as  of  the  Present, 
we  must  cease  to  grope  in  uncertain  darkness  while  explaining 
the  events  within  Judaism  during  the  period  of  the  Second 
Temple.  It  is  high  time  that  all  fable  and  fiction  about 
Sadducees  and  Pharisees  should  cease.  On  one  hand  the 
Sadducees  have  been  represented  as  Philhellenists  who  had 
placed  themselves  beyond  the  pale  of  Judaism,  who  had 
embraced  new  Grecian  refinement  and  had  thus  become 
entirely  denationalized;  they  were  made  to  appear  as  Epicu- 
reans, Sensualists,  Worldlings,  who  neglected  all  religious 
interests.  Others  on  the  contrary,  misled  by  the  similarity  of 
the  sound  in  the  name,  went  so  far  astray  as  to  take  them  for 
Stoics.  But  for  a  time,  they  were  the  very  representative 
men  of  the  Jewish  national  life,  and  their  exertions  likewise 
were  directed  towards  fathoming  the  foundation  of  Judaism; 
they  were  the  first  priest-nobility  vested  with  power,  and 
formed,  at  the  time,  the  center  around  which  the  people 
gathered,  but  which  later  degenerated  and  went  down,  as  is 
often  the  end  of  those  who,  elevated  above  the  masses,  strive 
to  rise  still  higher,  make  their  own  persons  and  personal 
interests  paramount  to  all  others,  and  therefore,  making  but 
very  little  effort  to  promote  the  advancement  of  the  welfare 
of  the  people,  are  at  last  pushed  aside   by  the  people. 

The  name  of  the  Pharisees,  too,  has  assumed  a  false 
meaning  in  the  memory  of  later  generations.  It  was  especially 
by  the  influence  of  another  religion  that  the  Pharisees  were 
regarded  as  petty,  narrowminded  men,  who  strain  at  a  gnat, 
indulge  in  outward  worship,  without  being  animated  by  true 
inward  piety,  as  men  devoid  of  more  exalted  religious  ideas. 
The  Jews  did  not  judge  them  thus  severely,  yet  that  worth 
which  was  actually  innate  in  them  was  not  attributed  to  them. 
For,  in  reality,  they  were  the  very  core,  the  brain  and  the 
brawn  of  the  nation ;  their  exertions  were  directed  toward  the 
establishment  of  equal  rights  for  all — their  fight  was  the  fight 


108  Judaism  and  Its  History 

that  was  repeated  in  all  times  wheii  great  interests  are  at 
stake,  the  fight  against  priestcraft  and  hierarchy,  against 
privilege  of  individual  classes,  the  fight  for  the  very  truth  that 
not  outward  qualities  alone,  but  inward  religious  conviction 
and  consequent  moral  conduct  constitute  the  proper  worth  of 
the  man.  The  means  which  they  were  in  many  respects  forced 
to  employ,  seem  at  first  sight  not  to  bear  out  such  a  view,  but 
when  examined  more  closely,  they  fully  correspond  to  it. 
To  oppose  the  priests  they  were  compelled  to  claim  for  every 
man  everything  that  distinguished  the  priesthood ;  they  would 
not  assign  higher  duties  to  others  lest  they  were  obliged  to 
yield  them  also  special  rights.  We  are — thus  they  said — ^just 
as  holy,  and  occupy  the  same  exalted  position  as  you.  Let 
us  suppose  a  case,  that  some  later  period  received  the  super- 
ficial account,  that  once  upon  a  time  a  dispute  had  arisen  as 
to  whether  it  should  be  the  duty  of  all  classes  of  the  people 
to  defend  their  country,  and  that  even  those  who  in  former 
times  had  been  exempt  from  military  service  now  were 
foremost  in  their  determination  to  leave  that  duty  no  longer 
to  the  nobility,  the  knights,  who  alone  had  hitherto  staked 
their  lives  and  fortunes  for  the  security  of  their  common 
country;  might  not  some  persons  think  that  those  who  were 
so  anxious  to  do  the  fighting  were  ruffians,  dissatisfied  because 
others  fought  the  fight  to  a  finish?  Would  such  an  opinion 
be  just?  Certainly  not!  The  classes  who  enjoyed  that 
negative  privilege,  the  privilege  of  having  no  share  in  the 
activities  of  the  country,  now  come  forward  with  the  claim: 
"We  are  equally  children  of  our  country,  we  shall  perform 
the  same  duties  and  demand  the  same  rights;  you  shall  per- 
form no  higher  duties,  to  claim  in  consequence  superior 
privileges  and  represent  yourselves  as  the  pillars  of  the 
Commonwealth;  we  are  equally  ready  to  bring  the  same 
sacrifices."  The  same  sentiment  brought  forth  the  struggle 
of  the  Pharisees  against  the  Sadducees,  and  was  the  motive 
of  their  readiness  to  submit  to  the  same  priestly  burdens. 

That  serious,  bitter  fight  was  sometimes  carried  on  with 
insufficient  means — a  phenomenon  which  is  often  repeated  in 
history.    The  aspiring  party  bear  within  themselves  the  full 


The  World  to  Come,  Hillel  109 

power  of  the  idea  but  can  not  put  it  into  practice.  The 
stubborn  fact  was  that  the  Sadducees  were  the  nobility;  they 
held  all  offices;  they  were  either  priests  and  therefore  com- 
manded respect,  or  noble  families  connected  with  the  priests; 
they  basked  in  the  favor  of  the  Court,  which  occasionally, 
when  it  could  not  help  itself,  grasped  the  hand  of  the  Pharisees, 
but  felt  comfortable  only  in  the  atmosphere  of  the  Sadducees. 
As  it  was,  the  Sadducees  were  in  actual  possession  of  the 
administrative  affairs  and  were  sure  to  retain  a  part  of  them. 
The  Pharisees  might  be  ever  so  determined  in  their  fight 
against  the  special  privileges  of  the  priestly  families,  as  far 
as  they  touched  civil  and  political  life  and  legal  rights,  yet 
they  could  not  abolish  priesthood  altogether  because  history 
had  established  its  right  of  existence,  and  as  long  as  the 
Temple  with  its  sacrificial  service  remained,  their  ministers 
could  not  be  dispensed  with.  In  such  times  when  the  result 
of  a  struggle  appears  dubious  and  undetermined,  when  the 
combatants  struggle  with  full  determination,  behold  their 
victory  close  by  and  yet  begin  to  despair  of  its  results,  men 
will  then  turn  their  eyes  to  the  future. 

Healthful  times,  healthy  nations  are  thoroughly  conscious 
of  their  spiritual  power,  they  feel  their  infinity  and  eternity  of 
the  spirit  even  in  the  present;  vigorous  spiritual  energy  is  so 
strong,  superior  as  it  is  to  all  that  is  finite,  it  requires  no 
additional  guaranty  for  itself.  Healthful  times,  healthy 
nations  will  never  arrive  at  the  conclusion  that  the  spirit  is 
but  a  weak  decoction,  a  mixture  of  changing  matter,  of  nervous 
fluid  and  blood-globules;  they  are  conscious  of  their  spiritual 
independence,  of  the  convincing  power  wherewith  it  is  endowed  - 
— of  the  distinct  and  separate  existence  of  the  spirit.  And 
for  that  reason  they  do  not  continually  think  of  the  future,, 
do  not  indulge  in  dreams  as  to  what  may  be  in  times  to  come; 
in  the  very  present  they  bear  within  themselves  the  strength 
of  the  spirit  with  its  convincing  power;  to  them  every  minute 
is  an  infinity  containing  the  germs  of  development  for  all  later 
times.  Such  times  and  such  nations  look  upon  the  future  as 
upon  the  natural  result  of  the  present,  well  knowing  that 
whatever  moves  and  animates  it,  will  and  must  be  realized  at 


110  Judaism  and  Its  History 

some  time  to  come,  being  to  them  as  something  already 
present  in  the  spirit.  Morbid  men,  morbid  times  or  religions, 
incessantly  think  of  the  future,  place  it  upon  the  foreground. 
From  the  present,  in  which  they  lack  the  energy  to  effect  their 
ardent  wishes,  they  take  refuge  into  a  future  to  which  they  are 
unable  to  find  a  natural  transition,  and  for  which  they  long 
the  more  fervently,  and  which  they  picture  to  themselves 
with  embellishments  so  much  the  more  brilliant.  "It  will  be 
otherwise"  is  their  continual  consolation;  the  weaker  their 
present  confidence,  the  bolder  the  poetic  imageries  of  a 
brilliant  future. 

Judaism  knows  no  such  weakness,  it  is  deeply  and  fully 
convinced  of  an  independent  spiritual  life;  it  regards  man's 
likeness  to  God  impressed  upon  him  by  Divinity  Himself,  as 
none  other  than  a  spiritual  attribute.  The  directness  with 
which  it  speaks  of  a  spiritual  power,  both  of  the  spiritually 
living  God  and  of  man  as  living  through  the  spirit,  that  pro- 
found conviction  permeating  all  its  writings,  is  a  guaranty  for 
the  belief  within  Judaism,  that  the  spirit  is  everlasting  and 
can  never  be  cut  off.  But  it  does  not  place  that  belief  in  the 
foreground,  it  has  not  designated  this  earth  as  a  vale  of  tears, 
nor  pictured  the  reward  to  come  beyond  the  grave  in  brilliant 
colors;  it  has  never  commanded  us  to  destroy  this  earth  as 
something  vain  and  sinful;  it  has  never  demanded  that  joy  in 
life  on  earth  should  be  crushed,  because  this  life  is  but  a  time 
of  probation.  Judaism  does  not  know  such  morbid  sen- 
timentality. 

That  it  contains  the  belief  in  the  immortality  of  the  soul 
and  further  develops  it  is  proved  even  by  the  subtle  author  of 
Ecclesiastes ;  he  expresses  his  doubts  about  that  subject  the 
same  as  with  regard  to  other  matters,  but  the  very  fact  that 
he  utters  such  doubts,  proves  that  the  belief  had  been  generally 
adopted:  "The  spirit  of  man  goeth  upward."  "The  dust 
returneth  to  the  earth  as  it  was;  and  the  spirit  returneth  unto 
God  who  gave  it."  In  that  manner,  the  belief  affords  strength, 
elevation  and  inspiration  without  deadening  and  crushing  the 
present.  But  times  had  arrived  when  the  present  was  very 
gloomy,  when  men  could  not  feel  satisfied  with  what  it 


The  World  to  Come,  Hillel  111 

afforded.  They  beheld  their  own  efforts  and  the  contrast 
exhibited  in  the  actual  conditions;  they  considered  their  means 
to  carry  their  endeavor  into  effect,  and  saw  their  insufficiency. 
It  is  but  natural  in  such  times  men  will  take  comfort  by 
saying  to  themselves:  "Nevermind!  Whatever  can  not  be 
accomplished  in  the  present,  will  assume  form  in  a  better 
time.  Another  time  is  bound  to  come  in  this  world,  and  then 
conditions  will  be  changed  at  once."  In  such  mental  con- 
dition, the  Pharisees  said:  "The  priesthood  will  go  down,  a 
descendant  of  the  House  of  David  will  reign,  the  people  will 
be  invigorated,  the  national  life  will  mature  the  fruit  which 
we  so  much  long  for;  another  world  will  come,  and  we,  too, 
shall  participate  in  it."  They  were  not  satisfied  with  the 
hope  that  the  future  would  develop  what  the  hot  air  of  the 
present  had  germinated ;  they  themselves  desired  to  participate 
in  the  enjoyment  of  that  future,  because  they  had  enjoyed 
nothing  in  the  present.  That  is  the  origin  of  a  belief  in  a 
future  Resurrection  of  the  body.  That  belief  was  part  of 
Parseeism,  and  the  Jews  may  have  become  acquainted  with 
it  during  their  sojourn  in  Persia.  Traces  of  its  existence 
among  them  at  an  earlier  period  can  not  be  discovered;  the 
book  of  Daniel  is  the  first  that  makes  mention  of  it,  and  that 
book  dates  from  that  very  time  in  which  the  internal  severe 
battle  was  raging.  Granted  even  that  such  belief,  prevailing 
among  the  Parsees,  affected  the  Jews  there,  Judaism  would 
never  have  adopted  it  if  it  had  not  been  impelled  thereto  by 
circumstances  in  its  internal  development.  Just  as  the  Phari- 
sees, the  men  who  struggled  for  a  change  of  conditions  and 
could  not  bring  that  about,  could  not  help  creating  for  them- 
selves a  future  as  the  realization  of  their  present  desires:  so 
the  Sadducees  who  were  satisfied  with  their  power,  who  did 
not  wish  for  a  change  and  even  opposed  it,  for  that  very  reason 
repudiated  the  belief  in  the  resurrection  of  the  body.  Whether 
they  can  be  condemned  on  that  account  as  infidels,  is  a 
question  which  I  may  confidently  leave  to  your  own  decision 
rather  than  to  that  of  many  another  tribunal. 

The  fight  between  the  Sadducees  and  the  Pharisees  grew 
hotter  and  hotter,  both  in  the  domain  of  civil  life  and  in  that 


112  Judaism  and  Its  History 

of  religious  affairs,  and  dominated  all  thought  and  sentiment. 
The  more  serious  and  gloomier  the  aspect  of  affairs  became, 
the  more  intense  became  the  differences ;  the  threatening  crisis 
into  which  the  nation  was  thrust,  challenged  all  healthy 
popular  energy.  Just  as  the  people  arose  at  the  time  of  the 
Maccabean  War,  when  foreign  oppression  wanted  to  crush 
them,  so  it  also  happened  in  the  subsequent  history  of  Judaism. 
Conflicts  of  the  most  various  kinds  raged  within,  even  in  the 
royal  family;  the  several  sons  of  a  deceased  king,  the  succes- 
sion not  being  fully  regulated,  made  rival  claims  to  the  throne 
and  contended  against  each  other;  foreign  nations  were 
appealed  to  for  their  decision,  for  their  assistance  to  one  or 
the  other.  That  increased  the  discontent  with  the  present 
and  its  representatives.  That,  for  all  that,  true  religious 
sentiment  was  not  extinct  in  the  heart  of  the  noble-minded 
during  those  strifes,  may  be  shown  by  the  following  incident. 
During  the  contest  of  two  rival  claimants,  Hyrcanus  and 
Aristobulus,  the  adherents  of  one,  and  the  officiating  priests 
with  them,  had  fortified  themselves  in  the  Temple,  and  their 
opponents  laid  siege  to  the  building.  Both  crowds  were  full 
of  the  most  rabid  party  spirit.  A  man  of  great  reputation, 
Onias,  known  in  the  Talmud  as  Honi  Ha-Meaggel,  to  whose 
prayer  especial  efficacy  was  ascribed,  was  called  for  by  the 
besiegers  and  requested  to  pray  for  their  victory  and  the  defeat 
of  the  besieged.  But  he  made  this  prayer:  "Lord  of  the 
universe,  our  Father  in  Heaven !  within  Thy  Temple  are  Thy 
priests,  sons  of  Thy  people ;  out  here  are  likewise  sons  of  Thy 
people;  they  are  enraged  against  each  other,  do  not  hearken 
unto  the  prayers  of  those  against  these,  nor  unto  the  impre- 
cation of  these  against  those."  The  crowd  stoned  him  to 
death.  That  man  was  the  child  of  true  Jewish  spirit,  who  can 
be  numbered  among  the  noblest  martyrs.  Inspired  by  true 
love  of  man  and  country,  he  remains  tfaithful  even  in  the  very 
face  of  death.  He  would  not  desecrate  his  speech  in  spite  of 
the  wrath  and  rage  boiling  around  him.  Whether  that  noble 
martyr,  when  he  breathed  his  last,  did  or  did  not  utter  the 
prayer,  ''Father,  forgive  them,  they  know  not  what  they  do," 
legend  does  not  inform  us;  for  it  is  only  legend  that  can  tell 


The  World  to  Come,  Hillel  113 

such  things — the  words  of  a  dying  man  are  heard  by  no  one 
— his  sentiments  are  surely  of  that  character. 

But  the  fierceness  of  those  conflicts  was  soon  to  mount 
and  be  merged  into  a  question  of  existence.  A  nation  entered 
upon  the  world's  stage  which  soon  gained  the  greatest  power 
and  exerted  the  most  decisive  and  authoritative  influence 
everywhere.  Rome  came  in  like  a  lion  among  the  weaker 
animals,  and  in  cat-fashion,  like  the  lion,  it  at  first  approached 
cunningly  and  pleasantly,  acted  the  part  of  a  mediating  ally, 
then  to  pounce  upon  those  friends,  usurping  supremacy  over 
them,  and  then  reducing  them  into  complete  subjection. 
When  Rome  began  its  cat-lion  game  with  Judea,  the  people 
felt  that  a  mighty  foe  was  approaching;  alarming  restlessness 
seized  upon  their  minds ;  the  party  conflicts  grew  more  violent 
and  more  general.  Herod  was  hated,  feared  as  a  foreigner 
and  a  tyrant,  yet  his  good  qualities  might,  in  the  eyes  of  the 
people,  perhaps,  have  covered  those  two  objections,  and  his 
native  energy  might  have  acted  as  a  bond  of  union.  But 
what  constantly  brought  him  to  mind  as  a  foreigner  and  put 
fuel  to  the  flame  of  hatred  against  him,  was  the  fact  that  he 
appeared  as  a  satellite  of  Rome,  that  his  face  was  incessantly 
turned  toward  Rome  and  that  he  always  earned  favors  from 
Rome. 

In  times  like  those,  men  appear  who  reflect  the  very  soul 
of  the  nation  and  who  mean  to  give  it  shape  and  form.  I 
shall  mention  to  you  a  name  which  is  not  circled  in  history 
with  the  halo  that  is  attached  to  many  other  names,  although 
it  well  deserves  it  and  that  his  great  importance  should  be 
recognized  and  appreciated.  As  the  Revealed  Doctrine  is 
connected  with  the  name  of  Moses,  Tradition  with  that  of 
Ezra,  so  Regenerated  Judaism  is  identified  with  the  name  of 
Hillel.  The  Talmudists  have  well  understood  and,  in  the 
naive  expression  of  their  time,  have  characterized  the  import- 
ance of  Hillel  in  the  saying:  **The  Torah  had  been  forgotten, 
then  Ezra  came  from  Babylon  and  established  it  anew;  and 
again  the  Torah  fell  into  oblivion  and  Hillel  arrived  from 
Babylon  and  established  it  anew."  It  was  not  forgotten,  but 
it  was  paralyzed,  it  was  about  to  lose  its  vital  energy  and 


114  Judaism  and  Its  History 

influence  upon  later  development,  if  Hillel,  the  man  of  pro- 
found understanding  and  true  religious  life,  had  not  effected 
its  regeneration.  It  may  be  that  the  Babylonian  Gemara 
emphasizes  with  especial  pleasure  the  fact  that  Ezra  and 
Hillel  had  come  from  Babylon — for  the  men  of  the  Babylonian 
Talmud  were  proud  of  Babylon,  despite  the  oppression  they 
had  to  suffer  there — and  that  very  fact  may  contain  a  truth ; 
viz.,  that  just  such  men  who  had  aot  been  mixed  in  and  were 
not  wholly  saturated  with  the  momentary  conditions  of 
Palestine,  who  had  breathed  a  different  atmosphere  and  per- 
haps viewed  wider  fields,  were  especially  fit  to  awaken  a  new 
popular  spirit.  At  any  rate,  Hillel  was  a  man  who  exerted  a 
decisive  influence  upon  Judaism. 

Hillel  is  a  fully  historical  person.  The  records  concerning 
him  may  surround  him  with  some  embellishing  legend  but 
those  legends  only  draw  some  lines  more  distinctly,  they  do 
not  cover  or  blur  his  portrait.  Legends  accompany  every 
distinguished  man,  even  in  the  most  historical  ages;  anecdotes, 
piquant  tales  and  incidents  are  related  of  him,  which  can  not 
stand  the  test  of  historical  investigation,  but  they  emanate 
from  his  character,  so  that  we  must  acknowledge  that,  even 
if  they  did  not  actually  come  to  pass,  they  are  yet  in  full 
harmony  with  his  character.  Legends  of  that  kind  are  no 
fiction,  they  are  the  product  of  true  poesy:  the  inmost  depth 
of  such  a  man's  heart  is  fathomed,  pearls  are  brought  up 
thence  which  are  to  be  found  there  and  only  accident  had  not 
started  them  out  into  the  light  of  day  before ;  the  sharp  contour 
of  his  picture  becomes  more  perceptible  by  them.  As  a  poet, 
although  he  does  not  render  history  with  complete  fidelity, 
nevertheless  must  portray  his  hero  faithfully,  even  if  adding 
a  line  here  and  changing  another  there,  in  order  to  throw  a 
clearer  light  upon  his  entire  character,  so  also  does  healthy 
and  sound  popular  tradition  treat  persons  who  have  taken  a 
well-defined  part  in  history,  so  that  legend  must  fit  closely  to 
them,  unable  to  obliterate  their  physiognomy.  It  is  true  that 
with  others,  legend  changes  their  whole  character,  ornaments 
them  with  miracles  and  covers  them  with  a  full  stock  of  tinsel, 
but  the  more  miraculous  legend  appears,  the  less  credible  it 


The  World  to  Come,  Hillel  115 

is  and  the  more  does  it  veil  the  real  character  of  the  person. 
The  glorification  leaves  so  much  less  of  the  actual  historical 
man.  If  such  a  man  would  have  presented  a  sharp,  well- 
marked  outline,  legend  could  not  have  surrounded  it  with 
direct  contradictions  and  could  not  have  obliterated  the  distinct 
traits.  It  did  not  do  so  in  Hillel's  case.  Some  legends  may- 
have  become  affixed  to  his  life,  but  they  are  so  completely  in 
accordance  with  his  character,  no  miracles  are  attributed  to 
him,  that  he  continues  a  man,  a  sound,  whole  human  being; 
he  is  not  claimed  to  be  more,  and  for  that  very  reason  he  is 
the  greater. 

He  is  designated  as  a  disciple  of  Shemaya  and  Abtalyon. 
While  a  poor  youth,  so  it  is  related,  he  was  once  unable  to 
pay  to  the  janitor  the  small  fee  which  was  demanded  of  those 
desiring  admission.  It  was  a  cold  winter  evening;  he  climbed 
up  to  the  window  of  the  lecture  room,  in  order  to  hear  the 
discourses  of  the  teachers,  and  there  he  lay,  regardless  of  what 
happened  around  him ;  the  snowfiakes  fell  upon  him  thick  and 
fast  and  covered  him  entirely.  Stiffened  with  the  cold,  he 
passed  the  whole  night  there  and  when,  in  the  morning  the 
lecture  room  was  opened  and  daylight  would  not  enter  by 
that  window,  on  examination  being  made,  Hillel  was  dis- 
covered, unconscious  and  half  frozen;  he  was  carried  into  the 
house  and  resuscitated.  We  will  pass  no  judgment  on  the 
truth  of  the  tale;  if  it  be  but  a  legend  it  keeps  within  the 
bounds  of  probability  and  nature,  intended  to  depict  both  his 
extraordinary  zeal  for  study  and  his  great  poverty.  Of  his 
poverty  we  are  informed  also  in  other  ways;  but  although  he 
had  no  abundance  of  the  good  things  of  this  life,  he  preserved 
his  independence,  and  because  he  was  of  the  common  people, 
he  had  the  more  heart  for  the  people  and  their  wants. 

Of  all  his  virtues,  his  meekness  is  especially  praised.  That 
trait  of  his  wa3  so  well  known  that  it  has  passed  into  a  prover- 
bial saying.  Two  men  entered  into  a  wager,  one  of  them 
taking  the  side  that  he  could  arouse  Hillel  to  anger.  One 
Friday  evening  when  people  were  preparing  for  the  Sabbath 
he  went  three  times  to  him  and  asked  him  the  most  trivial 
questions.     Hillel  admitted  him  and  answered  the  questions 


116  Judaism  and  Its  History 

in  the  most  quiet  manner.  When  the  man,  upon  his  third 
attempt,  perceived  that  he  had  failed,  he  exclaimed  violently: 
"May  there  not  be  many  in  Israel  like  thee!'*  which  caused 
Hillel  to  ask  the  reason.  *'Why?"  replied  the  questioner, 
"through  thee,  I  have  lost  a  large  bet."  "Well,"  said  Hillel, 
"it  is  better  that  thou  shouldst  lose  thy  bet  than  I  my  calm- 
ness and  humility."  Persons  desiring  information  upon 
Judaism  with  a  view  to  joining,  applied  to  him  as  well  as  to 
Shammai.  Shammai  was  older  and  his  superior;  clinging 
more  to  inherited  custom  and  following  old,  beaten  tracks, 
he  was  the  leader  and  was  first  addressed.  Such  an  inquirer 
came  to  Shammai,  saying:  "I  desire  to  join  Judaism,  but  1 
make  the  condition  that  I  shall  be  made  high-priest."  Sham- 
mai sent  him  rudely  away.  He  then  applied  to  Hillel,  who 
said  to  him:  "My  son,  let  us  try."  He  gave  him  instruction; 
soon  they  came  to  a  passage  treating  of  the  priests  where  it 
was  said  of  those  not  descended  from  priests  that  they  could 
not  enter  certain  parts  of  the  Temple  under  penalty  of 
death.  And  the  man  said  to  himself,  "If  not  all  native 
Israelites  are  permitted  to  assume  priestly  functions,  how 
could  I  do  it?"  And  he  withdrew  that  condition.  Another 
came  scoffing  and  wanted  to  be  taught  the  tenets  of  Judaism 
during  the  brief  space  of  time  that  he  could  stand  on  one 
leg.  Shammai  drove  him  away;  he  went  with  the  same 
request  to  Hillel,  who  said  to  him,  "Whatever  is  displeasing 
unto  thee,  do  not  unto  another;  that  is  the  foundation  and 
root  of  Judaism;  the  rest  is  commentary  which  you  may  learn 
at  your  leisure."  The  scoffer  was  changed  into  a  convert. 
A  third  one  came,  saying,  "I  should  like  to  join  Vv^ith  you; 
I  have  read  the  Written  Law,  the  Bible,  and  accept  it;  but  I 
do  not  want  to  observe  another  law  which  has  been  but  orally 
transmitted."  Shammai  repulsed  him,  but  when  he  applied 
to  Hillel,  the  latter  received  him  kindly,  at  once  commenced 
his  instruction,  and  taught  him  on  the  first  day  the  letters  in 
their  usual  order,  but  on  the  second,  he  read  them  to  him  in 
reversed  order.  "How  is  this?"  asked  the  pupil,  "Yesterday 
I  heard  the  letters  in  a  different  order."  "Behold!"  replied 
Hillel,  "Yesterday  you  believed  in  the  order  of  the  letters 


The  World  to  Come,  Hillel  117 

adopted  by  me ;  follow  me  further  in  that  which  is  not  written 
down,  but  which  is  only  a  natural  development  of  the  other." 
Those  men  became  ardent  disciples  of  Judaism  and  once  upon 
a  time,  meeting  each  other,  observed,  "The  harshness  of 
Shammai  well-nigh  drove  us  away  from  the  sanctuary,  but 
the  suavity  of  Hillel  has  kindly  initiated  us  into  it.'* 

Such  tales  afford  us  a  full  insight  into  the  character  of  the 
man.  If  it  should  be  supposed  from  the  fact  that  he  pointed 
to  passages  of  Holy  Writ  for  certain  privileges  of  the  priests, 
that  he  was  favorable  to  the  priests,  it  would  be  a  great 
mistake.  He  accepted  what  could  not  be  changed  by  him, 
but  he  was  the  very  man  who  carried  on  the  contest  against 
the  priests  with  all  possible  determination  and  narrowed  down 
the  limits  of  their  prerogatives  most  closely.  His  presenta- 
tion of  the  foundation  and  essence  of  Judaism  fully  discloses 
the  sentiment  of  the  man;  the  essence  of  Judaism  consists  in 
love  of  man  and  mutual  regard,  in  the  respect  of  the  dignity 
of  man  and  the  equality  of  all  men;  the  rest  is  commentary. 
Do  you  perchance  suppose  that  Legend  has  attributed  to 
Hillel  in  that  story  a  trait  out  of  the  life  of  the  founder  of 
another  religion?  It  would  be  in  itself  unnatural  to  adopt 
from  another  religion,  and  especially  from  a  hostile  daughter 
religion,  a  maxim  of  which  it  boasts  as  its  exclusive  property; 
it  would  rather  be  contended  against  and  its  value  denied. 
Besides,  that  maxim  was  not  so  much  in  keeping  with  the 
rigid  legalism  of  a  later  time  that  it  should  have  invented  the 
story  which  was  really  an  obstacle  in  their  way.  But  aside 
from  that,  as  you  gain  a  better  knowledge  of  our  Hillel,  you 
will  see  that  the  maxim  is  in  full  accordance  with  his  char- 
acter. At  an  earlier  date,  the  canon  had  been  established: 
"Whoever  believes  God  to  be  all-merciful  and  all-gracious, 
regards  also  benevolence  and  love  towards  his  fellow-men  as 
a  fundamental  duty."  Listen  now  how  our  Hillel  thinks  of 
God.  There  are  three  different  classes  of  men;  namely,  the 
fully  pious,  the  intermediary,  and  the  fully  wicked.  On  some 
future  day,  there  will  be  a  day  of  judgment  for  men;  the  fully 
pious  will  at  once  enjoy  their  reward,  the  fully  wicked  will 
receive  their  punishment,  but  what  will  become  of  the  inter- 


118  Judaism  and  Its  History 

mediary?  Of  them  the  School  of  Shammai  says,  "They  will 
first  be  sent  into  hell,  given  up  to  punishment,  but  will 
longingly  look  up  and  wail  and  gradually  ascend." — "Not 
so,"  says  Hillel,  "as  regards  the  intermediary,  He  who  is 
abundant  in  mercy  will  incline  the  scale  unto  mercy."  Who- 
ever entertains  such  an  idea  of  God,  holds  also  higher  opinion 
of  man  and  teaches  love  for  all  mankind.  Accordingly,  that 
maxim  is  quite  in  agreement  with  his  character.  As  regards 
a  third  point,  that  he  defends  Tradition,  his  very  character 
affords  the  clue:  he  is  a  man  of  living,  continuous  development, 
he  demands  that  actual  practical  life  in  its  freshness  should 
decide  upon  measure  and  form. 

Hillel  knows  man  according  to  his  inner  being  but  no  less, 
according  to  the  demands  of  life.  He  is  wont  to  consult  with 
his  soul.  He  hastens,  a  tale  beautifully  relates,  from  the 
house  of  learning,  in  order  to  attend  to  a  dear  guest.  His 
disciples  ask  him,  "Master,  who  is  the  dear  guest  whom  thou 
keepest  in  thy  house  from  day  to  day?"  "That  guest,"  he 
replied,  "is  my  own  soul — during  my  intercourse  with  the 
world,  it  must  always  be  pushed  back,  but  it  claims  its  right 
nevertheless."  That  is  true,  profound  introspection.  But 
he  was,  withal,  far  from  sentimentality  and  transcendentalism; 
he  apprehends  life  rather  in  its  freshness,  beauty  and  im- 
portance. A  long-drawn-out  dispute  existed  between  the 
Schools  of  Shammai  and  Hillel.  The  adherents  of  the  former 
maintained  in  perfect  accordance  with  their  gloomy  ways, 
that  it  would  be  better  for  man  never  to  have  been  born  than 
to  be  born;  the  followers  of  the  latter  asserted  that  it  is  better 
for  man  that  he  has  been  created;  he  is  born  for  action  and 
the  earth  is  the  place  of  his  activity.  They  had  to  yield  in 
a  manner,  because  the  others  had  the  greater  authority,  but 
their  whole  yielding  amounted  to  this:  "Well,  we  are 
created;  let  us  be  active,  and  examine  well  our  action." 
"Make  the  most  of  life  and  its  day,"  was  the  motto  of  Hillel. 
Whenever  Shammai  came  across  anything  good  and  nice 
during  the  week,  he  said,  "Let  this  be  kept  for  the  Sabbath." 
Hillel  said,  "  Praise  to  God  day  by  day;  this  is  a  day  on  which 
I  may  rejoice  through  the  goodness  of  God;  another  day  will 


The  World  to  Come,  Hillel  119 

bring  its  own.**  He  recognized  the  claims  and  the  mission 
of  every  period,  and  the  difference  of  the  times  gave  him  the 
rule  for  his  labors.  He  used  to  say,  "At  a  time  of  gathering 
in  when  they  love  to  see  everything  clothed  in  religious  garb, 
you  may  spread  and  scatter,  let  ceremonies  and  formalities 
grow  in  luxurious  abundance;  but  at  a  time  of  casting  off, 
when  ceremonies  and  formalities  are  dropping  out,  then  pull 
up,  be  ready  to  yield,  desist  from  forcible  preservation  and 
enlargement." 

That  was  the  fundamental  idea  along  the  lines  of  which 
Hillel  proceeded,  as  attested  by  all  his  works  and  words. 
He  presents  the  picture  of  a  genuine  reformer ;  that  word  will 
not  do  him  any  harm ;  it  ought  to  raise  him  in  our  estimation. 
He  was  confronted  by  the  difficulties  that  present  themselves 
to  rejuvenation  and  revival  at  all  times;  some  may  have  told 
him,  "Why  wilt  thou  make  changes?  Stand  by  that  which  is 
authoritative  now.  How  canst  thou  usurp  the  right  of  making 
innovations?"  The  saying  of  his :  "  If  I  work  not  for  myself, 
who  will  work  for  me?"  is  probably  the  answer  to  such 
objectors.  If  only  that  which  former  times  have  produced, 
beyond  which  we  have  already  passed,  shall  be  binding,  and 
I  do  not  make  timely  regulations  for  myself,  who  is  to  make 
them  for  me? — Others  may  have  said,  "  Well,  keep  it  to  thyself; 
think  and  act  accordingly;  but  why  wilt  thou  interfere  by 
introducing  changes  and  reforms  for  the  community?"  As 
if  an  idea  were  for  one  individual  only,  as  if  it  could  be  locked 
up  in  a  box,  to  be  looked  at,  at  an  opportune  time,  while  it 
is  in  fact  a  vital  energy  ruling  and  impelling  man,  as  the 
prophet  expresses  it:  "It  was  in  mine  heart  as  a  burning 
fire,  shut  up  in  my  bones,  and  I  was  weary  with  forbearing 
and  I  could  not  stay."  And  Hillel's  saying  replies  to  those: 
"If  I  am  for  myself  alone,  what  am  I  then?" — Do  I  ask 
anything  for  myself?  The  community  wants  its  burden  made 
lighter.  "Desist,  dear  friend,"  others  may  have  cautioned 
him,  "thou  art  too  hasty."  His  maxim,  "If  not  now,  when 
then?"  is  probably  the  reply  to  those  conservatives.  Every 
age  labors  and  must  labor,  and  if  we  mean  to  creep  along  in 
indolence,  the  future  is  killed  in  its  very  germ.    Such  was 


120  Judaism  and  Its  History 

Hillel,  and  that  he  labored  in  that  manner,  that  he  was  the 
man  who  dared  to  make  determined  resistance  to  all  aggra- 
vations, that  he  never  feared  the  name  of  mitigator,  all  will 
clearly  perceive  who  have  once  cast  a  glance  into  the  history 
of  Judaism.  I  shall  not  trouble  you  with  details;  but  I  shall 
adduce  a  few  examples  to  show  how  he  understood  his  time. 
There  is  a  biblical  precept  that,  when  a  house  situated  in 
a  city  surrounded  by  a  wall  has  been  sold,  it  can  be  redeemed  by 
its  former  owner  within  a  year ;  if  he  has  neglected  the  redemp- 
tion, the  house  remains  the  property  of  the  purchaser  (mort- 
gagee). Usually  the  grantor  (mortgagor)  waited  till  the  last 
day  of  the  term,  when  he  would  use  every  effort  to  raise  the 
money  for  the  redemption.  But  often  the  purchaser  (mort- 
gagee) went  away  on  the  last  day  for  redemption  and  locked 
the  house,  in  order  to  make  it  impossible  for  the  former 
owner  (mortgagor)  to  repay  him  the  purchase  money  and 
regain  his  property.  The  law  existed,  its  letter  was  binding. 
"No,"  said  Hillel,  "the  letter  is  not  binding — in  case  the  man 
in  possession  is  not  at  home,  let  the  door  be  forced  open,  or 
the  money  be  deposited  in  the  Temple  treasury;  the  lawful 
owner  shall  not  lose  his  property  in  consequence  of  the 
cunning  used  by  the  other  party."  Another  much  more 
far-reaching  example  is  the  following:  Every  seventh  year 
there  was  a  release  of  debts,  a  precept  born  of  the  tender 
spirit  of  Judaism,  but  naturally  intended  only  for  the  simple 
times  when  the  people's  life  moved  within  the  plainest 
conditions.  In  such  a  period,  only  those  borrow  money  who 
are  in  actual  want  and  the  sums  are  small — to  assist  such 
persons  is  an  act  of  pure  charity — and  under  such  circum- 
stances the  law  of  the  year  of  release  is  a  very  beautiful  one; 
the  time  has  expired,  the  debt  is  canceled.  But  in  later  times, 
borrowing  and  lending  were  no  longer  merely  the  result  of 
want  on  the  one  side  and  of  pure  generosity  on  the  other; 
men  borrowed  for  business  purposes,  to  have  ready  means  for 
carrying  on  trade;  nor  did  people  do  the  lending  from  a 
sentiment  of  charity,  perhaps  as  a  favor,  but  mainly  to  share 
in  the  profits.  Now,  if  the  debtor  had  an  opportunity  in  the 
seventh  year  to  get  rid  of  his  debts,  what  would  follow  as 


The  World  to  Come,  Hillel  121 

the  consequence?  That  which  Holy  Writ  apprehended;  there 
was  no  longer  any  one  willing  to  lend  money,  because  it  was 
known  that  at  a  definite  time  the  right  of  collecting  the  loan 
would  lapse,  because  the  year  of  release  canceled  all  debts. 
How  could  that  be  remedied?  "What  do  I  care?"  said 
conservatism,  ''it  is  written;  the  law  must  stand."  "No," 
said  Hillel,  "shall  business  be  stopped  because  the  defrauder 
covers  himself  with  the  mantle  of  the  law?  Shall  the  poor 
starve,  because  fear  of  loss  ties  up  the  hand  of  the  wealthy 
— and  all  in  the  cause  of  religion?  No,  this  thing  must  be 
remedied.  Henceforth  the  contracts  may  be  executed  at 
court,  with  the  stipulation  that  the  year  of  release  shall  not 
cancel  the  debt;  and  that  stipulation  shall  be  valid." — "But 
that  is  clearly  against  the  law  as  it  is  written." — "Maybe; 
but  when  we  stick  to  its  letter,  all  morality  will  be  lost; 
written  or  not,  practical  life  decides."  And  Hillel's  announce- 
ment was  accepted  and  prevailed. 

Such  was  the  man  and  thus  he  became  a  restorer  or 
reformer  of  Judaism,  and  his  influence  continues  to  this  day. 
He  did  not  believe  in  seclusive  piety,  as  his  saying,  "Separate 
not  thyself  from  the  community  or  thy  fellow-men,"  plainly 
expresses.  To  assume  to  be  pre-eminently  devout,  to  forsake 
others  as  backsliders  and  bask  in  a  lustre  of  seclusive  piety, 
is  immoral.  He  had  no  respect  for  hermitical  piety — he  was 
a  man  of  social  practical  life  and  he  invigorated  and  elevated 
the  life  of  Judaism  in  all  possible  manner.  How  that  period 
might  have  further  shaped  itself,  if  the  quiet  development  of 
Judaism  had  thus  continued  its  course,  is  superfluous  to 
conjecture.  Quiet  development  was  not  granted  to  it.  Great 
events  came  to  pass;  two  events  which,  taken  together,  do 
not  constitute  the  heart  and  central  point  of  the  world's 
history,  but  which  produced  great  revolutions;  I  mean  the 
origin  of  Christianity  and  the  dissolution  of  the  Jewish 
Commonwealth. 


IX. 

Parties  and  Sects,  Origin  of  Christianity, 

If  it  is  a  difficult  task  to  show  how  the  spirit  of  Religion 
has  entered  the  human  mind  and  become  rooted  therein,  to 
disclose  the  mysterious  ways  through  which  its  development 
has  passed,  to  point  out  the  various  formations  by  which  it 
manifested  itself  amid  the  chances  and  changes  of  external 
historic  life,  and  yet,  at  the  same  time  not  to  lose  sight  of 
the  Unity  of  the  religious  idea:  the  difficulty  of  such  a  task 
is  greatly  increased  when,  in  reviewing  history,  we  have 
arrived  at  a  turning  point  which  is  followed  by  most  searching 
consequences  and  with  which  a  world-historic  transformation 
begins.  Even  the  various  impelling  and  moving  forces  which 
co-operate,  as  it  were,  to  introduce  a  new  creation  into  the 
world,  are  at  work  at  such  a  depth  that  they  are  concealed 
from  our  view  and  manifest  themselves  only  through  their 
external  effects.  From  insignificant  beginnings,  limited  at 
first  within  a  narrow  circle,  a  new  spiritual  power  has  all  at 
once  developed  itself;  and  we  must  track  it  into  its  various 
starting  points,  examine  how  its  paths  are  entwined  with  and 
met  by  circumstances  and  conditions  which  favored  that 
development.  And  here,  still  another  difficulty  presents  itself. 
Historical  events  which  have  turned  into  deepest  convictions, 
which  are  regarded  by  some  as  the  very  life's  nerve  of  their 
own  minds  and  also  of  the  spiritual  movement  of  the  world's 
history,  in  fact,  as  the  very  aim  and  center  of  man's  existence, 
which  are  reverenced  as  the  Holiest  of  Holies,  challenge  our 
attention;  whereas,  by  the  other  side,  the  protest  now  raised 
aloud  and  then  again  by  intentional  silence,  is  no  less  deter- 
mined, and  also  has  its  root  in  the  idea  and  conception  of 
human  life  and  destiny.  Every  one  who  perceives  the  moving 
of  the  Divine  Spirit  in  the  grand  course  of  the  world's  history, 
will  reverence  also  God's  work  in  a  world-historic  event  that 


Parties  and  Sects,  Origin  of  Christianity       123 

produced  such  important  transformations  in  all  relations; 
will  see  His  disposing  hand  in  a  faith  that  has  kept  for  nearly 
fifteen  centuries  the  civilized  world  under  its  sway;  he  will 
with  reverence  examine  a  religion  by  which  millions  have  been, 
and  still  are,  quickened  and  comforted.  And,  though  he  does 
not  share  the  belief  that  this  historical  event  should  be  ven- 
erated as  the  spiritual  center  of  the  entire  historic  existence 
of  the  world,  that  an  .entirely  new  spiritual  creation  had 
occurred  which  had  illuminated  the  world  with  ideas  that 
had  never  before  been  felt  or  conceived;  that  henceforth  it 
had  become  the  prop  and  pillar  of  a  new  world-structure  as 
well  as  the  only  source  of  a  new  spiritual  life:  he  will  feel 
himself  pressingly  called  upon  to  justify  his  opposition  and 
to  explain  his  interpretation  of  the  peculiarities  of  those  events. 
But  he  must  also  be  permitted  to  utter,  though  modestly, 
yet  without  repression,  his  own  opinion,  without  fearing  that 
a  word  might  escape  his  lips  which  would  sound  unpleasantly 
to  one  side  or  the  other.  Whoever  respects  in  himself  free, 
honestly  acquired  convictions,  and  claims  the  right  to  freely 
express  his  own  opinion,  honoring  true  manly  courage  therein, 
will  not,  it  is  hoped,  deny  the  same  right  to  others,  but  will 
quietly  receive  the  utterance  of  an  independent  conviction, 
however  much  it  may  militate  against  his  own. 

A  great  world-historic  movement  approaches;  and  before 
we  proceed,  we  must  once  more  vividly  place  before  our  eyes 
the  state  of  the  world  at  that  time,  especially  the  conditions 
in  Judea.  There  was  a  strong,  in  part  very  healthy  move- 
ment of  the  spirits  in  that  country.  The  reformatory  labors 
of  Hillel  had  partly  turned  the  minds  from  the  tactical  error 
of  assuming  priestly  garb  in  the  fight  against  the  priest- 
caste.  Phariseeism  had  entered  upon  a  phase  of  development 
wherein  it  gave  the  true  spirit  of  Judaism  free  rein,  although, 
as  is  the  case  with  all  such  movements  towards  reform,  only 
a  sort  of  halfway  station  had  been  reached.  Priesthood  and 
Temple-service  still  retained  their  importance,  although  that 
was  on  the  decline;  but  the  elevation  of  man  to  free  and 
independent  religiousness  had  not  yet  reached  that  high  point, 
from  which  the  sight  can  behold,  free  and  untrammeled,  the 


124  Judaism  and  Its  History 

Divine  in  man  ruling  the  conviction  and  transforming  and 
creating  the  outward  form.  Transformation  was  ardently 
striven  for,  but  effected  only  by  closely  leaning  upon  existing 
forms,  and  in  that  manner  it  succeeded.  Continual  working 
along  those  lines  would  surely  have  carried  Judaism  to  higher 
development.  Phariseeism  was  a  sound  limb  on  the  body  of 
Judaism,  and  proved  itself  as  such  also  at  that  time.  Its 
adherents  were  zealous  patriots,  and  at  the  same  time  seri- 
ously devoted  to  the  study  and  practice  of  their  religion. 
Yet,  with  all  their  efforts  to  preserve  the  national  and  political 
life,  to  fortify  the  customs  and  independence  of  their  country, 
they  were  men  who  were  opposed  to  every  revolutionary 
enterprise  and  exerted  themselves  to  moderate  all  inconsider- 
ate zeal.  They  had  entered  into  the  heart  of  political  life, 
their  leaders  had  gradually  acquired  enough  importance  to 
have  a  weighty  voice  in  the  council  of  the  nation  by  the  side 
of  the  high-priests,  the  chiefs  of  the  Sadducees,  to  pronounce 
their  decisive  judgment  concerning  both  political  and  civil 
affairs.  And  it  could  now  be  seen  that  they  themselves, 
formerly  the  men  of  violent  opposition,  weighed  with  prudent 
circumspection  the  means  at  their  command,  and  well  esti- 
mated the  forces  in  their  hands.  Even  Josephus,  the  fawning 
and  partial  historian  of  that  time,  is  forced  to  acknowledge, 
when  speaking  of  the  man  who  stood  at  the  head  of  the 
Pharisees  during  the  period  of  the  Jewish  war — Simon  Ben 
Gamaliel,  grandson  or  great-grandson  of  Hillel,  who  was  no 
friend  of  Josephus  but  rather  opposed  him  in  his  measures 
because  he  probably  had  suspicions  about  him — even  Josephus 
is  forced  to  concede  that  Simon  Ben  Gamaliel  was  a  man  of 
determined  energy  joined  with  the  most  circumspect  prudence, 
a  man  who  studiously  sought  to  keep  the  people  from  com- 
mitting excesses,  who  by  no  means  approved  the  foolhardy 
enterprises  which  shall  yet  present  themselves  to  our  atten- 
tion. Thus  the  Pharisees,  though  powerfully  impelled  by 
religious  hopes  for  the  future,  lived  nevertheless  chiefly  in 
their  present,  and  their  energies  and  activities  were  directed 
towards  improving  conditions  in  their  own  time.    • 

But  in  such  times  as  we  have  under  consideration,  men  of 


Parties  and  Sects,  Origin  of  Christianity        125 

that  stamp  might  in  a  measure  preserve  their  authority,  but 
they  could  never  satisfy  the  people.  Rome  was  knocking  at 
the  gates  of  Jerusalem  with  an  iron  hand,  to  lay  it  heavily 
on  the  neck  of  the  nation ;  the  distant  roll  of  the  thunder  was 
heard  long  before  the  storm  burst  forth  in  its  full  fury.  There 
is  a  saying  of  our  ancient  teachers  still  extant:  ** Forty  years 
before  the  Temple  was  destroyed,  its  gates  opened  and  could 
no  more  be  closed."  Be  that  as  it  may,  at  all  events  the 
words  convey  the  idea  that  even  a  generation  before  the 
catastrophe  actually  occurred,  all  eyes  were  turned  towards 
it  with  alarm,  and  people  settled  down  to  the  conviction  that 
a  desperate  struggle  was  coming,  that  the  battle  would  have 
to  be  fought  even  if  it  should  turn  out  barren  of  results.  In 
such  times,  the  mass  of  the  people  will  not  regard  prudent 
moderation  as  a  virtue.  It  chooses  quite  different  men  for 
its  favorites,  men  who  come  forward  with  burning  zeal,  with 
a  fervor  of  faith  and  patriotism  bordering  on  raving  madness, 
to  whom  every  means  appears  fair  as  long  as  it  seems  to  lead 
towards  the  accomplishment  of  their  object;  men  who,  with- 
out reflecting  whether  or  not  their  means  are  sufficient  and 
without  regarding  what  the  result  may  be,  will  attempt 
anything  to  give  vent  to  the  vehemence  of  their  emotions, 
even  if  it  should  accelerate  the  catastrophe.  Such  men  did 
appear,  and  even  their  contemporaries  designated  them  by 
the  fully  characteristic  name  of  Zealots  {Kannaim),  With 
their  zeal  for  their  faith,  they  nurtured  an  implacable  hatred 
against  the  tyrannical  rule  and  influence  of  the  foreigners. 
On  account  of  the  insufficiency  of  the  means  at  their  command, 
many  of  fhem  had  no  scruples  against  employing  such  means 
as  would  have  been  indignantly  rejected  in  more  quiet  times. 
They  were  also  called  Sikarioi,  because  they  carried  a  dagger, 
concealed  beneath  their  cloaks  and  secretly  stabbed  everyone 
who  advocated  moderation  and,  by  that,  appeared  to  them 
suspicious,  as  a  traitor  hired  by  the  enemy.  They  were  so 
numerous  and  well-connected  together,  they  were  in  such 
favor  with  the  population,  that  the  legal  authorities  dared 
not  lay  hands  upon  them.  With  such  ideas,  revolts  occurred. 
Judah  of  Gaulonitis,  a  Galilean,  proclaimed  it  as  a  crime,  as 


126  Judaism  and  Its  History 

a  denial  of  religion,  to  obey  the  empire  or  to  yield  in  any 
manner  to  the  secular  rule  imposed  by  a  foreign  country. 
"There  is  but  one  kingdom,"  so  ran  his  dictum,  "and  that  is 
the  kingdom  of  Heaven,  the  Kingdom  of  God.  When  the 
country's  God-believing  power  is  broken  and  is  to  bow  down 
before  the  heathen  unbelief,  then  is  the  world  moved  from 
its  foundation.  Our  duty,  first  and  last,  is  not  to  yield  to 
that  worldly  power."  In  his  eyes  it  was  a  sin  to  touch  a 
piece  of  money  which  had  the  picture  of  the  Roman  Emperor 
on  it;  to  pay  taxes  to  a  foreign  power  was  a  crime;  to  date 
contracts  according  to  the  Roman  custom,  under  this  or  that 
Consul,  or  under  this  or  that  Procurator,  was  blasphemy  as 
well  as  treason  against  the  country.  The  words  of  another 
one  of  those  Galilean  zealots  are  related  as  follows:  "How 
can  you  Pharisees  make  any  claim  to  piety?  You  write  in 
contracts  the  name  of  the  foreign  ruler  by  the  side  of  that  of 
Moses,  beginning  them  with  *In  the  .  .  .  year  of  the 
Emperor  .  .  .  .'  and  conclude  with  *  according  to  the 
law  of  Moses  and  Israel.'  If  the  name  of  the  unbeliever  is 
in  such  manner  incorporated  in  contracts  of  marriage  and  the 
like,  that  have  any  religious  significance,  can  you  call  that 
piety?"  The  Pharisees  of  course  rejected  and  rebuked  such 
exaggerations,  but  among  the  population  at  large,  they  rever- 
berated to  such  an  extent  that  they  led  to  isolated  revolts  and 
the  formation  of  new  sects.  To  such  an  importance  had  the 
party  of  the  Zealots  risen  that  Josephus  actually  represents 
the  adherents  of  Judah  of  Gaulonitis  as  a  fourth  sect,  by  the 
side  of  the  Pharisees  and  the  Sadducees,  and  a  third  one,  the 
Essenes,  which  last  one  we  shall  also  consider.  Theudas, 
another  Zealot  leader,  acted  on  the  same  ideas  somewhat 
later;  he  too  came  from  Galilee,  stirred  up  revolts,  and  found 
many  enthusiastic  adherents.  That  the  leaders  were  crucified 
by  the  Romans,  did  not  injure  the  respect  paid  to  them;  their 
sentiment  spread  only  the  more  rapidly. 

The  feeling  which  prevailed  in  Judea,  bursting  forth  in 
deeds  of  wild  fanaticism,  rested  on  an  old  spiritual  foundation 
which  increased  more  and  more  in  strength  and  intensity. 
Already  during  the  time  when  the  Maccabean  war  had 


Parties  and  Sects,  Origin  of  Christianity        127 

started,  an  idea  had  general  circulation  which  was  firmly 
rooted  in  the  assurance  of  the  faith  in  themselves,  though 
joined  with  the  certainty  of  despair  that  it  could  not  come 
to  pass  just  then.  The  idea  took  form  in  the  exclamation: 
"The  world  is  breaking  up;  the  future  world  must  soon  come." 
In  the  book  of  Daniel  which  describes  those  matters  in  the 
form  of  a  vision,  the  mighty  powers  who  rise  against  the  saints 
of  the  Most  High  are  described  in  their  full  terror;  but  at  the 
same  time  he  encourages  the  timid,  saying,  "A  son  of  man 
shall  then  arise,  hidden  in  the  clouds  of  heaven;  all  empires 
shall  bow  to  him,  all  peoples  shall  yield  in  obedience  to  him, 
and  many  of  them  that  sleep  in  the  dust  of  the  earth  shall 
awake  and  rise  up,  some  to  everlasting  life  and  some  to 
everlasting  shame."  This  world  is  in  itself  completely  ruined 
and  destroyed;  a  future  one,  not  beyond,  but  here  on  this 
earth,  shall  appear,  in  which  also  the  ancient  saints,  rising 
up,  shall  participate.  The  Kingdom  of  God,  or  the  Heavenly 
Kingdom,  as  it  is  also  called  in  Daniel,  shall  come.  Of  course, 
the  Maccabees  did  not  appear  as  such  sons  of  men,  hidden 
in  clouds  of  heaven;  they  were  warriors  and  ended  as  victors; 
nor  was  the  position  pointed  out  in  the  visions  reached;  the 
nations  did  not  obey  them,  the  empires  did  not  yield  to  them, 
but  Judea  had  become  independent.  A  position  had  been 
reached  sufficient  for  the  considerate  and  energetic ;  and  those 
hopes  for  the  future  fell  to  the  rear  into  the  background. 
But  again  a  time  had  come  which  witnessed  spoliations  and 
devastations,  and  betokened  yet  greater  evils;  again,  a  still 
more  powerful  enemy  pressed  upon  Israel  with  far  more 
effective  opposition;  again  it  was  intended  to  break  not  only 
the  power  of  the  nation  as  an  independent  state — for  that  was 
already  broken — but  also  their  spiritual  life  was  to  be  crushed 
out.  The  worship  of  images  and  idols  was  again  to  be  intro- 
duced in  Judaism,  the  Emperors  were  to  be  adored  as  gods, 
as  Divij  their  statues  were  to  be  set  up  in  the  Temple.  Even 
the  Roman  standards,  adorned  with  the  eagles  as  the  emblem 
of  the  Roman  Empire,  the  flight  of  the  bird  being  observed 
and  interpreted,  appeared  to  the  Jews  as  of  idolatrous  sig- 
nificance.   And  those  eagles  were  ordered  to  be  affixed  to  the 


128  Judaism  and  Its  History 

Temple,  and  their  removal  to  be  punished  with  death !  Then 
despair  again  seized  the  minds  of  the  people;  their  religious 
sentiment  was  so  powerful,  ruled  all  conditions  of  life,  had 
grown  in  intensity,  and  yet  was  to  be  crowded  down.  Then 
it  was  that  the  ancient  idea,  which  had  fallen  to  the  rear  for 
awhile,  came  again  with  full  force  to  the  front :  The  Kingdom 
of  Heaven  will  and  must  come,  this  world  is  given  up  to  evil, 
it  is  a  world  of  heathenism  and  doomed  to  destruction ;  let  it 
perish,  the  future  world  will  soon  succeed  it;  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  appears,  the  pious  will  rise  up  again,  and  theirs  will 
the  kingdom  be  then.  Will  you  hear  the  words  of  a  zealot, 
or  rather  the  disciple  of  a  zealot  of  a  later  day,  as  it  has  been 
preserved  for  us  by  our  ancient  teachers?  He  announces: 
**  Whoever  takes  upon  himself  the  yoke  of  the  Law,  shakes 
off  the  yoke  of  the  empire  and  the  yoke  of  civil  authority ;  but 
whoever  shakes  off  the  yoke  of  the  Law,  upon  him  shall  be 
the  yoke  of  the  kingdom  of  this  world  and  the  yoke  of  all 
civil  ordinances.*'  Only  the  Law,  the  faithful  observance  of 
the  religious  statutes  shall  and  must  rule,  and  when  the  Law 
rules,  the  whole  artificial  political  structure  will  fall ;  all  those 
organizations  that  keep  political  life  together,  unless  Religion 
prescribes  them,  are  superfluous  and  will  vanish;  but  as  soon 
as  you  shake  off  the  yoke  of  the  Law,  that  easy,  sweet  yoke, 
then  you  must  bear  the  whole  pressure  of  the  heavy  yoke  of 
the  world.  Therefore  away  with  it,  and  seriously  cling  to 
the  Law!  Such  thoughts  filled  the  hearts,  such  hopes  were 
entertained  with  the  most  decided  confidence. 

There  were  also  timid  and  tender-chorded  hearts  that  did 
not  join  in  the  energetic  fury  or  in  the  elated  hopes,  and  who 
found  satisfaction  for  their  religious  sentiment  in  seclusion 
through  hermitical  asceticism ;  they  were  the  Essenes,  the  third 
sect  mentioned  by  Josephus.  They  did  not  influence  the 
changing  conditions  of  the  commonwealth,  yet  found  favor 
and  won  disciples;  they  were  regarded  as  having  power  to 
work  miracles  and  were  revered  on  account  of  their  quiet, 
pious  practices.  The  Essenes,  generally  speaking,  did  not 
greatly  differ  from  the  Pharisees;  they  were  of  the  Middle 
Class,  were  not  at  all  on  a  friendly  footing  with  the  aristocracy 


Parties  and  Sects,  Origin  of  Christianity        129 

and  the  priests;  they  are  even  reported  as  having  altogether 
repudiated  animal  sacrifices,  but  (far  more  than  the  most 
extreme  Pharisees  and  almost  in  opposition  to  the  main  body 
of  them)  they  shunned  as  much  as  possible  all  contact  with 
the  world  at  large,  secluding  themselves,  as  it  were,  in  the 
secret  sanctuary  of  their  hearts,  satisfying  their  spiritual 
wants  by  mystical  contemplation.  They  regarded  the  world 
and  its  affairs  with  indifference;  they  are  even  said  (but  the 
only  authority  for  particulars  about  them  is  the  very  unre- 
liable Josephus)  to  have  espoused  celibacy,  community  of 
property,  etc.  All  that  increased  their  reputation  and  they 
gained  reverence  as  healers,  workers  of  miracles,  prophets, 
but  they  exerted  no  influence  upon  the  development  of  events. 

Such  was  the  state  of  feeling  in  Judea. 

Whatever  found  expression  and  shape  in  and  around 
Jerusalem,  the  center  of  the  kingdom,  found  also  not  alone 
its  echo,  but  even  its  peculiar  intensified  expression  in  the 
outermost  limits  of  the  country;  and  these  outermost  limits 
were  Galilee.  Galilee  was  separated  from  Judea  only  by 
Samaria,  inhabited  from  very  early  times  by  a  mixed  people, 
whence  its  name,  "the  Land  of  the  Nations,"  surrounded  by 
Syrians  and  Phoenicians,  and  containing  quite  a  number  of 
settlements  of  those  populations.  You  have  probably  read 
in  a  recent  work  a  very  glowing  description  of  Galilee  of  that 
time.  It  runs  about  like  this:  "Galilee  is  a  highly  fertile, 
picturesque  country  in  which  pleasant  plains  are  varied  by 
green,  wooded  hills  whose  soil  furnishes  everything  that  man 
can  wish  for;  its  inhabitants  are  unsophisticated  children  of 
nature,  harmless,  ignorant  men,  and  lovely  ignorant  women 
who  follow  an  enthusiastic  youth  with  innocent  love."  It  is 
not  exactly  stated  whether  that  love  is  directed  more  to  the 
person  or  to  the  cause  he  represents.  I  am  sorry  that  I  have 
to  demolish  this  charming  idyl.  It  is  true,  Galilee  was  a 
fruitful  country;  it  was  intersected  by  rivers  and  hills,  and 
yielded  an  abundance  for  the  gratification  of  all  physical 
wants;  its  inhabitants  were  ignorant  indeed;  their  language 
was  mixed  and  corrupt,  having  lost  its  purity  and  character 
and  accepted   many  foreign  elements.    Hence  the  people 


130  Judaism  and  Its  History 

stood  not  so  high  as  the  inhabitants  of  Judea.  But  their 
ignorance  was  by  no  means  an  idyllic  life  of  quietude.  On 
the  contrary,  it  was  blended  with  a  certain  amount  of  savage- 
ness.  The  revolutionists  before  mentioned,  those  who  sought 
to  do  away  with  their  opponents  by  fire  and  sword,  by  dagger 
and  other  secret  means,  hailed  mostly  from  Galilee.  Young 
Herod,  even  at  a  period  just  preceding  the  one  under  con- 
sideration, gave  the  first  proofs  of  his  character  in  Galilee. 
He  had  executed  the  robbers  around  about  there  without 
ceremony  and  mercy,  driven  to  it  by  the  exigencies  of  the 
case.  He  was  indicted  for  it;  but  his  power — although  at  the 
time  he  was  but  governor  of  the  province  of  Galilee  under  his 
father  Antipater,  the  representative  of  Hyrcanus — had  even 
then  become  so  great  that  the  Sanhedrim  did  not  dare  to 
pass  judgment  against  him,  and  it  is  certain  that  he  had  good 
cause  for  his  extraordinary  proceeding.  For  a  spirit  had 
spread  in  Galilee,  such  as  generally  lays  hold  of  that  portion 
of  a  people  which  only  receives  the  general  impetus  of  a 
movement  without  being  able  to  account  clearly  for  the 
reasons  and  causes.  The  Galileans  were,  if  I  may  be  per- 
mitted to  coin  the  term,  the  Marseillesians  of  the  Jewish 
struggle,  of  that  commotion  which  surged  so  violently.  It 
was  in  Galilee  where  the  most  violent  and  extreme  movements 
found  the  fullest  applause.  In  a  similar  way,  as  the  Galileans 
were  inclined  to  rebellion,  so  they  were  ruled  and  inflamed  by 
the  belief  that  this  world  was  breaking  down  and  a  new 
world,  the  future  world,  would  soon  appear — an  idea  which 
visionaries  who  use  little  reflection  but  have  strong  feeling, 
will  always  readily  accept.  It  was  there  probably,  where 
John  went  about  exclaiming,  "Repent,  for  the  Kingdom  of 
Heaven  is  near  at  hand."  That  kingdom  is  the  future  world 
— the  rule  of  justice  on  this  earth,  the  destruction  of  all 
secular  fetters  and  the  illegitimate  reign  of  heathenism  to 
which  the  present  world  is  given  over  as  prey. 

Thus  the  hearts  were  in  full  agitation,  prepared  for  the 
most  wonderful  phenomena. 

It  was  then  that  a  man  appeared  in  Galilee  who  still  more 
confidently  gave  shape  to  the  commotion  of  the  times.     While 


Parties  and  Sects,  Origin  of  Christianity        131 

others  before  him  had  merely  advised  preparation  for  the 
Kingdom  of  Heaven,  promising  that  it  would  come — that  a 
son  of  man  wrapt  in  the  clouds  of  heaven  would  appear — 
that  a  complete  transformation  would  take  place,  while  others 
acted  only  as  prophets  and  proclaimers  of  that  belief,  bearing 
in  their  imagination  that  hope  without  giving  it  shape,  he 
had  the  courage  and  confidence  to  state,  "The  time  is  ful- 
filled, the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  is  come,  and  the  son  of  man 
wrapt  in  the  clouds  of  heaven" — at  first  he  did  not  distinctly 
pronounce  it,  but  he  had  the  belief  within  him  and  let  it  shine 
through  everjrwhere — "that  son  of  man,  I  am.'*  It  was  not 
his  idea  to  carry  on  a  fight  against  the  kingdom  of  this  world ; 
the  words  attributed  to  him  by  a  later  narrator,  "  My  kingdom 
is  not  of  this  world"  may  have  fully  corresponded  to  that 
belief.  It  means,  "  My  kingdom  does  not  begin  in  the  present 
heathen  world ;  this  heathen  world  will  soon  have  been  broken 
up  and  passed  away;  the  future  world  will  then  come  in, 
actually  and  tangibly,  and  then  my  kingdom  will  begin." 
He  was  fully  convinced  of  that,  and  in  all  later  times  of  deep 
oppression  we  meet  with  men  who  presented  themselves  with 
the  same  self-assurance  as  Messiahs.  Should  we  wonder  that 
at  such  a  time  of  general  tension  and  suspense,  a  bold  and 
glowing  enthusiasm  for  Judaism  and  its  reign  at  large  should 
completely  possess  and  carry  an  over-anxious  man  to  the 
point  of  faith  in  himself,  of  filling  him  with  the  courage  to 
announce  those  hopes  with  the  fullest  assurance?  It  was 
such  a  belief  that  animated  the  first  author  of  Christianity.  \ 
He  was  a  Jew,  a  Pharisean  Jew  with  Galilean  coloring — a  man 
who  joined  in  the  hopes  of  his  time  and  who  believed  that 
those  hopes  were  fulfilled  in  him.  He  did  not  utter  a  new 
thought,  nor  did  he  break  down  the  barriers  of  nationality. 
When  a  foreign  woman  came  to  him  with  request  to  heal  her, 
he  said,  "  It  is  not  meet  to  take  the  children's  bread  and  cast 
it  to  the  dogs."  He  did  not  abolish  any  part  of  Judaism;  he 
was  a  Pharisee  who  walked  in  the  way  of  Hillel,  did  not  set 
the  most  decided  value  upon  every  single  external  form,  yet 
proclaimed  "that  not  the  least  tittle  should  be  taken  from 
the  Law;"  "The  Pharisees  sit  in  Moses'  seat,  and  whatsoever 


132*  Judaism  and  Its  History 

they  bid  you  observe,  that  observe  and  do.'*  It  is  true  that, 
if  the  accounts  are  faithful,  he  allowed  himself  to  be  carried 
away  to  trifling  depreciatory  expressions  concerning  one 
subject  or  another,  when  he  was  opposed ;  but  he  never  faltered 
in  his  original  convictions.  The  replies  which  we  learn  from 
the  most  faithful  reporter — a  completely  accurate  report  can 
hardly  be  expected,  but  the  one  styled  "according  to  Mark'* 
is  the  most  reliable — the  objections  and  tests  presented  to 
him  rest  all  on  the  basis  which  he  occupied.  The  Sadducees 
took  him  to  task  concerning  the  resurrection  which  he  dis- 
tinctly-emphasized with  his  assertion  of  the  entrance  of  the 
future  world,  of  the  kingdom  of  Heaven.  With  the  scoffing 
question,  "Moses  wrote  unto  us,  if  a  man*s  brother  die  and 
leave  his  wife  behind  him  and  leave  no  children,  that  his 
brother  take  his  wife  and  raise  up  seed  unto  his  brother; — 
now  there  were  seven  brothers,  and  the  first  took  a  wife,  and 
dying,  left  no  seed;  and  the  second  took  her  and  died,  neither 
left  he  any  seed;  and  the  third  likewise,  and  the  seven  had 
her  and  left  no  seed;  last  of  all,  the  woman  died  also; — in  the 
resurrection  therefore,  when  they  shall  rise,  whose  wife  shall 
she  be?" — with  that  scoffing  question,  cunningly  calculated 
to  meet  his  assertion  of  the  speedy  appearance  of  the  future 
world  and  the  resurrection,  the  Sadducees  met  him.  He 
replied,  "The  future  world  will  appear,  but  there  will  be  no 
more  marrying  nor  giving  in  marriage."  When  a  Pharisee 
heard  that  and  found  that  the  answer  was  a  good  one,  he 
asked,  "Which  is  the  first  commandment  of  all?"  and  Jesus 
replied,  "The  first  of  all  commandments  is,  Hear  O  Israel, 
God  is  our  Lord,  God  is  One  (this  beginning  of  his  answer  is 
found  only  in  Mark,  the  other  Evangelists — a  very  significant 
pointer — have  omitted  it)  and  thou  shalt  love  God  thy  Lord 
with  all  thy  heart  and  with  all  thy  soul  and  with  all  thy  mind 
and  with  all  thy  strength.  This  is  the  first  commandment. 
And  the  second  is  like,  namely  this:  Thou  shalt  love  thy 
neighbor  as  thyself."  There  was  nothing  new  in  that.  And 
the  Pharisee  replied,  "Well,  Master,  thou  hast  said  the  truth: 
for  there  is  one  God;  and  there  is  none  other  but  he:  And 
to  love  him  with  all  the  heart  and  with  all  the  understanding 


Parties  and  Sects,  Origin  of  Christianity        133 

and  with  all  the  soul  and  with  all  the  strength,  and  to  love 
his  neighbor  as  himself,  is  more  than  all  whole  burnt-offerings 
and  sacrifices."  The  Pharisee  raised  no  objection,  for  what 
he  had  heard  corresponded  fully  to  his  own  conviction.  That 
reply  of  the  Pharisee  is  also  to  be  found  only  in  Mark;  the 
other  later  Gospels  shape  it  to  suit  their  purposes. 

If  the  author  of  Christianity  is  represented  as  having 
taught  the  specific  doctrine:  "God  is  a  God  of  love  and  not 
of  anger  and  vengeance,"  it  is  likewise  a  later  addition  which 
is  not  found  in  the  book  of  the  more  faithful  narrator.  What 
could  be  added  to  the  saying  of  Hillel:  "The  Merciful 
incline th  the  scale  toward  mercy?"  If  Jesus*  utterances  con- 
cerning the  purely  moral  relations  of  men  to  each  other  are 
indeed  faithfully  reported,  they  either  present  nothing  new,  or 
whatever  is  new,  bears  such  a  diseased  character  as  belongs 
to  a  diseased  age.  "Thou  shalt  love  thy  neighbor  as  thyself" 
was  a  saying  to  which  the  Pharisee  gave  his  approval,  "Well, 
Master,  thou  hast  said  the  truth!"  But  in  the  varying 
reports,  Jesus  is  said  also  to  have  praised  poverty  and  con- 
tempt of  the  world  and  everything  that  proceeds  from  this 
world ;  to  have  repudiated  cheerful  participation  in  the  affairs 
of  this  world.  Such  doctrines  are  not  taught  by  Phariseeism; 
on  the  contrary,  it  announces  this  principle:  "The  world  is 
an  ante-chamber  for  the  future  one;  prepare  thyself  well  in 
the  ante-chamber,  that  thou  mayest  appear  properly  in  the 
reception  room.  One  hour  in  the  future  world  is  sweeter  than 
all  enjoyments  in  this  one,  but  also,  one  hour  in  this  world 
spent  in  the  study  of  the  Law  and  the  performance  of  good 
deeds,  is  better  than  all  the  pleasures  in  the  future  world.'* 
If  such  cheerful  and  energetic  participation  in  the  affairs  of 
this  world,  undertaken  in  honor  and  honesty,  is  to  be  shunned 
and  everything  earthly  to  be  despised,  it  must  be  a  morbid 
tendency,  unless  it  can  be  explained  by  the  belief  that  the 
future  world,  organized  quite  differently,  was  near  at  hand. 
If  an  alleged  morality  is  to  suppress  every  sense  of  justice, 
if  the  doctrine  is  to  prevail:  "Whosoever  shall  smite  thee 
on  thy  right  cheek,  turn  to  him  the  other  also"  (in  other 
words,  Do  not  only  suffer,  but  lose  all  sense  of  honor)  and 


134  Judaism  and  Its  History 

also:  " If  anyone  take  away  thy  coat,  let  him  have  thy  cloak 
also,"  if  that  be  the  new  doctrine  proclaimed  by  Jesus  {Jesus 
is  the  Greek  pronunciation  of  the  name  Joshua;  Joshua,  the 
son  of  Nun,  is  called  Jesus  by  the  Greek  translators,  and  so 
is  Jesus  Sirach),  then  it  is  either  the  product  of  a  diseased 
period  which  perverts  all  order  and  destroys  all  notions  of 
right,  or  it  proceeds  from  the  transfer  of  an  entirely  different 
future  world  into  the  present. 

Thus  the  movement  started  at  first,  and  no  new  departure 
in  religion  is  exhibited,  although  the  impulse  to  one  was  con- 
tained in  it.  It  was  the  belief  in  the  fulfilment  of  the  Mes- 
sianic hopes  entertained  by  Pharisean  Judaism  of  that  period. 
Whatever  else  is  related  concerning  the  author  of  Christianity 
belongs  to  that  class  of  myths  or  legends  which  we  have 
alluded  to  in  a  former  place.  Whenever  legend  fails  to  make 
the  outlines  of  a  person  sharper  and  more  distinct,  whenever 
it  fails  to  draw  its  matter  from  the  distinctive  character  and 
essence  of  the  man  and  thereby  throws  more  light  upon  him; 
but  when,  on  the  contrary,  it  adorns  him  so  much  that  he 
becomes  unrecognizable,  far  exalted  beyond  all  individual  dis- 
tinctness and  volatilizes  him  into  a  mere  abstraction,  then  the 
legend  is  a  formation  of  the  imagination  which  in  exuberant 
growth  shapes  things  out  of  the  dim  fancies  of  the  period  and 
wraps  them  in  an  ever  deepening  darkness. 

That  the  first  author  of  Christianity  found  believing 
adherents  was  the  natural  effect  of  the  conditions  of  his  time. , 
At  first,  the  educated  and  intelligent  were  not  attracted  by 
him.  In  Galilee,  a  small  band  who  stood  low  and  were 
despised  by  the  bulk  of  the  population — many  of  them 
mercenaries  of  the  government,  publicans  that  gathered  the 
taxes  for  the  hated  empire,  upon  whom  the  whole  weight  of 
contempt  rested,  who  were  shunned  on  all  sides;  they,  the 
low  and  vulgar,  willingly  listened  to  his  announcement. 
"They  that  are  whole  have  no  need  of  the  physician,  but 
they  that  are  sick,'*  he  said.  And  those  sick  ones  were 
gathered  around  him.  Soon  he  did  not  confine  his  addresses 
to  those  exiles  from  the  population;  his  fame  spread,  and  he 
ventured  to  move  to  the  metropolis  of  Judea.     But  soon, 


Parties  and  Sects,  Origin  of  Christianity        135 

charges  were  made  against  him.  Here  and  there  he  also  met 
approval,  he  was  hailed  with,  "Hosanna,  son  of  David." 
For  such  he  must  needs  be,  if  he  meant  to  be  a  Messiah. 
He  was  brought  before  a  court,  and  we  are  not  told  that  a 
large  number  of  followers  were  with  him,  so  that  they  would 
have  been  afraid  to  pronounce  judgment  against  him.  The 
judgment  had  to  be  executed  by  the  procurator.  Pilate  asked 
him,  "Art  thou  the  King  of  the  Jews?"  and  he  replied, 
"Thou  sayest  it."  He  did  not  deny  it.  According  to  a  later 
account,  he  added,  "My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world"  —  of 
course  not,  but  of  the  future  which  will  soon  come  and  appear. 
"Verily  I  say  unto  you,  there  be  some  standing  here  which 
shall  not  taste  of  death  till  they  see  the  Kingdom  of  God" — 
"there  be  many  here  who  shall  see  it  how  the  end  of 
things  shall  be  fulfilled."  To  Pilate,  the  whole  matter 
seemed  strange,  unintelligible  doings,  not  important  enough 
to  demand  his  rigorous  interference,  but  the  people  to  whom 
he  left  it  to  pray  for  his  release,  according  to  an  ancient 
custom,  giving  them  the  right  to  obtain  pardon  for  a  criminal 
before  a  festival,  repudiated  all  fellowship  with  him  and 
refused  their  intercession.  Thus  a  judgment  was  pronounced 
which  could  not  have  been  different  in  a  time  of  such  commo- 
tion, which  threatened  to  be  made  still  more  miserable  by  the 
announcement  of  lying  hopes — for  such  they  were  to  those  who 
did  not  believe  in  him — and  by  the  implied  attempt  at  revolu- 
tion. Imbued  with  the  religious  convictions  of  his  time,  he 
raised  himself  into  a  position  which  was  not  accorded  to  him, 
represented  the  hope  of  the  future  as  fulfilled  and  embodied 
in  himself,  raised  expectations  of  a  complete  change  in  all 
political  conditions,  and  ignored  the  whole  civil  arrangement 
of  the  time,  even  if  he  did  not  start  a  revolt.  Under  such 
circumstances,  the  verdict  could  not  have  been  otherwise;  he 
was  crucified,  as  was  Judah  of  Gaulonitis  and  his  followers 
at  a  previous  time.  The  adherents  of  Jesus  at  first  were 
stunned  by  that  issue,  but  not  shaken  in  their  belief.  Of 
course  this  world  moves  on  in  its  course,  he  also  dies;  this 
world  must  hate  him,  it  had  power  yet  for  a  short  time,  but 
the   Heavenly   Kingdom   comes,    then   he   rises  again,   the 


136  Judaism  and  Its  History 

resurrection  will  start  with  him  and  then  become  general. 
That  faith  prevailed  even  during  his  lifetime,  it  could  not  be 
shaken  by  his  death ;  on  the  contrary,  it  was  but  natural  that 
it  would  appear  more  vividly  in  the  foreground.  He  must 
rise  again — he  will  surely  rise  again — and  soon  the  opinion 
was  arrived  at:  He  is  risen — he  is  gone  to  heaven  and  will 
appear  again,  wrapt  in  the  clouds  of  heaven  at  the  general 
resurrection  with  the  entrance  of  the  Heavenly  Kingdom. 
That  course  of  development  is  perfectly  natural,  there  is 
nothing  strange  about  it;  and  his  disciples  see  him,  waiting 
day  by  day  for  his  glorious  return.  That  is  the  first  dispo- 
sition to  the  origin  of  Christianity,  the  germ  out  of  which  the 
mighty  tree  comes  forth,  to  which  the  other  factors  become 
joined,  to  gradually  transform  the  sect,  feeble  in  its  incip- 
iency,  into  a  ruling  power. 


X. 

The  Evolution  of  Christianity. 

By  the  side  of  the  various  tendencies  then  existing  within 
Judaism,  by  the  side  of  Sadduceeism,  of  Phariseeism  with 
the  profound  commotion  within  it,  of  Essenism,  of  Zealotism, 
of  the  following  of  Juda  of  Gaulonitis,  and  some  other  minor 
groups,  all  within  the  small  territory  of  Judea — a  proof  of 
the  deepest  excitement  of  all  forces,  of  a  severe  struggle,  both 
spiritual  and  political — by  the  side  of  those  various  tendencies, 
another  new  one  sprouted  from  the  soil  of  Pharisean  Judaism, 
that  of  the  fulfilled  Messianism.  The  Greek  translation  of 
that  term  is  Christianity;  Messiah,  the  anointed  (Christos) 
was  the  designation  of  the  king  who  was  expected  to 
inaugurate  the  future  world,  to  bring  about,  while  destroying 
the  entire  present  ancient  world,  the  conditions  in  which 
God  alone  shall  be  King,  and  the  Heavenly  Kingdom,  or 
the  Kingdom  of  God,  proclaimed  and  introduced  by  that 
Messiah,  shall  prevail.  Thus  the  belief  in  the  fulfilled 
Messiahship,  or  Christianity,  presented  the  claim  that  the 
new  world  was  now  beginning,  or  had  already  begun,  that 
the  Messiah  had  appeared,  that  he  had  died  within  the  old 
world,  in  fact,  had  to  die  in  it,  but  would  rise,  had  even  risen, 
and  would  soon  reappear  in  the  clouds  of  heaven,  in  order  to 
completely  arrange  the  new  world,  to  force  all  mankind  to 
submit  to  the  Kingdom  of  God,  and  to  call  a  new  race  into 
existence,  even  outside  of  the  present  disrupted  and  corrupted 
civil  laws.  Such  was  the  new  tendency  which  now  came 
to  the  surface  within  Judaism,  and  starting  from  the  very 
soil  of  Phariseeism. 

The  new  feature  was  this,  that  the  event  which  all,  or  at 
least  the  greater  part  of  the  Jewish  people  regarded  as  some- 
thing to  come  in  a  far-distant  time,  and  therefore  sketched 
in  indistinct  outline,  was  now  believed  to  have  been  fully 


138  Judaism  and  Its  History 

accomplished  and  would  soon  show  up  in  its  full  glory. 
That  was  the  first  phase  of  Christianity.  That  tendency 
could  not  make  much  growth  within  Judaism  in  Palestine. 
The  old  time  was  indeed  a  gloomy  and  hard  one  for  the  Jews 
there;  that  the  old  world  was  doomed  to  perish,  was  a  belief 
which  afforded  them  comfort  and  fortitude;  but  that  it  had 
already  perished,  that  a  new  world  had  already  appeared, 
was  a  great  step  from  reality  into  imagination,  which  the 
facts  and  actual  conditions  most  emphatically  refuted.  "  No, 
the  new  world  has  not  yet  appeared,  though  we  most  fervently 
hope  for  it,"  was  the  general  verdict.  Besides,  the  minds 
were  burdened  with  too  many  heavy  cares  to  indulge  in  the 
play  of  the  imagination  that  the  future  had  actually  come. 
Every  day  brought  new  troubles;  as  often  as  the  sun  arose, 
it  shone  upon  new  struggles  and  new  hardships — all  energies 
were  called  for,  not  to  indulge  in  speculation  and  to  strengthen 
a  belief  which  stamped  ideals  of  the  future  as  present  real- 
ities, but  to  give  undivided  attention  to  the  actual  present 
with  its  burdens  and  oppression.  Accordingly,  the  belief 
in  the  actual  fulfilment  of  the  Messianic  hope  spread  very 
little  within  the  boundaries  of  Palestine.  The  historian 
of  that  time,  Josephus  Flavins,  makes  no  mention  of  the 
author  of  the  tendency  and  of  the  tendency  itself,  while  he 
treats  extensively  of  all  the  others,  especially  of  those  which 
were  of  a  very  recent  date:  that  of  Juda  of  Gaulonitis,  that 
of  Theudas,  of  the  Zealots,  and  gives  a  full  account  of  the 
persons  and  their  purposes.  The  few  lines  found  in  the  pre- 
sent shape  of  his  book  concerning  the  author  of  Christianity, 
bear  the  most  distinct  mark  of  a  later  interpolation ;  the  brief 
words  are  in  the  fullest  conflict  with  the  character  of  the  whole 
book,  are  without  connection,  a  fragmentary  patch,  not  the 
work  of  an  author  who  elaborates  the  task  proposed  to 
himself,  according  to  a  certain  plan. 

Within  Palestine,  the  tendency  could  not  gain  an  extensive 
spread.  The  lower  class  of  the  people,  by  nature  prone  to 
believe  in  wonders,  and  greedy  of  miracles,  who,  because 
pushed  to  the  rear  by  the  better  class,  gladly  take  up  some- 
thing new — the  lower  class  were  the  first  to  take  and  follow 


The  Evolution  of  Christianity  139 

the  new  lead.  That  miracle-mad  class  creates  its  fulfilled 
prophecies  and  miracles  with  the  greatest  ease,  in  luxurious 
abundance.  Accordingly  the  new  doctrine  was  almost  entirely 
covered  with  the  most  luxuriant  creepers  of  the  superstition  of 
the  lower  class  of  the  time.  The  belief  in  Demons  who  can  be 
found  everywhere  in  innumerable  multitudes,  as  evil  spirits 
infest  the  atmosphere,  take  possession  of  men  and  infatuate 
them,  but  can  be  driven  out  by  incantation — that  crude 
belief  in  demons  may  now  and  then  be  found  in  Jewish  writ- 
ings, but  it  forms  by  no  means  their  center  and  substance. 
But  such  matters  occupy  a  very  great  portion  of  the  records 
of  incipient  Christianity;  the  stories  of  the  work  of  the  Devil, 
that  he  possesses  humanity,  that  his  hosts  enter  men  as 
demons,  and  that  the  possessed  are  cured  again,  almost  crowd 
out  everything  else. 

Such  was  its  course  in  Palestine. 

It  fared  differently  among  the  Jews  residing  elsewhere. 
From  ancient  time,  Jews  had  been  living  among  the  Grecians, 
had  formed  congregations,  and  their  numbers  were  swelled 
by  emigration  from  Judea  so  much  the  more,  the  gloomier 
the  conditions  became  there.  Although  those  Grecian  Jews 
felt  deep  sympathy  with  the  sufferings  of  their  brethren  in  their 
old  home  country;  although  every  woe  that  befell  Palestine, 
found  a  responsive  chord  in  their  hearts;  although  they 
looked  with  reverence  toward  the  holy  land  which  ever 
remained  to  them  their  parent  soil,  yet  they  did  not  have 
to  go  through  the  struggles  or  fight  the  battles  themselves. 
While  arms  clashed  in  Judea,  while  all  energies  were  called 
upon,  day  after  day,  to  attend  to  the  demands  of  the  day,  to 
endure  its  labors  and  hardships,  to  make  front  against  vexations 
and  irritations ;  while  thus  in  Judea,  mind  and  strength 
were  directed  entirely  towards  the  present,  the  Grecian 
Jews  were  but  passive  spectators  who  from  afar  beheld  with 
profound  grief,  perhaps  derided  as  aliens  with  different 
customs  and  ceremonies  by  the  nations  among  whom  they 
lived,  yet  from  a  safe  distance  the  ruin  of  their  parent  country 
and  the  probable  loss  of  their  spiritual  center.  Now,  as  they 
were  also  looking  with  hope  and  trust  for  the  new    time  in 


140  Judaism  and  Its  History 

which  they  were  to  be  rid  of  those  ills  that  were  with  them 
of  rather  a  mental  nature,  they  were  much  nearer  to  the  belief 
that  such  hopes  would  soon  be  fulfilled,  or  even  that  they 
were  fulfilled.  They  were  not  pressed  down  by  the  burdens  of 
the  day,  they  breathed  more  freely;  hence  hope  had  freer  play. 
Besides,  the  announcements  of  the  enthusiastic  votaries 
were  more  readily  believed  in  the  distance  than  among  those 
who  had  seen  everything  pass  before  their  own  eyes.  Thus 
it  happened  that  Messianic  Judaism  proclaimed  as  already 
fulfilled,  found  a  far  greater  number  of  adherents  within 
Grecian-Jewish  colonies  even  in  the  very  beginning.  And 
among  them  the  new  belief  met  again  a  new  spiritual  element. 
The  Grecian  Jews  possessed  a  Greco- philosophical  trait 
which  they  had  interwoven  with  their  religious  belief.  The 
religious  speculations  tended  towards  the  recognition  of  a 
divine  reflex,  a  Logos,  the  Divine  Thought  which,  as  emana- 
tion from  God,  had  called  the  world  into  existence  and  keeps 
up  the  connection  with  it;  filled  with  the  spiritual  idea  of  Juda- 
ism, philosophy  attempted  to  place  God  beyond  all  contact 
with  the  material  world,  to  put  him  so  far  beyond  all  that  is 
finite  and  temporal  that  a  certain  connecting  link  was  found 
necessary  for  making  it  possible  to  deduce  the  creation  and 
preservation  of  the  world  from  God.  The  Logos,  the  Thought, 
the  Reflex,  the  Idea  emanating  from  God,  was  the  DemiourgoSf 
the  creator  of  the  world.  Whether  he  was  to  be  regarded  as 
an  individual  being,  or  as  a  mere  idea,  remained  undecided; 
it  was  a  habit  begun  by  Plato,  to  keep  the  idea  suspended 
between  something  actually  existing  and  something  merely 
imaginary.  Now,  the  Thought,  the  Idea,  or  the  "Word," 
all  of  which  meanings  are  in  the  Greek  term  Logos,  was  in  a 
way,  the  connecting  link,  the  medium  or  mediator  between 
God  and  the  world,  and  was,  as  Philo  and  others  expressed 
it  in  bold  poetic  figure,  the  only  begotten  (Monogenes)  of 
God  —  a  bold,  poetic  expression,  but  justified  by  their 
philosophic  system.  The  Thought  born  of  God,  but  always 
remaining  with  God,  could  justly  be  called  the  one  and  only 
begotten  son  of  God.  That  conception  and  its  figure  of 
speech  had  spread  afar  and  become  common  property,  and 


The  Evolution  of  Christianity  141 

leaning  upon  expressions  in  Holy  Writ,  such  as  the  word  of 
God,  the  glory  of  God,  and  other  similar  terms,  it  did  not 
remain  confined  to  the  Grecian  Jews,  but  passed  also  into 
the  vernacular  of  Palestine.  Here,  Logos  was  Memra,  the 
"Word,"  the  emanation  from  God  to  guide  mankind,  the 
medium  or  means  for  all  that  produces  effects  upon  the 
senses,  and  the  Chaldean  version  uses  the  word  "Memra" 
when  it  seeks  to  avoid  sensible,  corporeal  attributes  to  God. 
Now,  a  new  world  has  come,  the  future  world  is  becoming  a 
reality.  The  world  had  first  been  created  through  the  Logos, 
through  its  mediation.  If  then  the  ancient  world,  created  by 
the  Logos,  passes  away  and  a  new  world  takes  its  place,  if 
the  future  world  becomes  the  present  reality,  can  that  have 
been  created  by  anything  else  than  the  Logos?  To  be  sure, 
the  Messiah  is  the  Logos,  the  Word,  the  only  begotten  son 
of  God!  The  Messianic  idea  is  thus  transplanted  upon 
another  soil,  the  views  are  transformed,  and  the  Son  of  Man 
is  changed  into  the  Son  of  God,  at  first  only  as  an  idea,  as 
a  philosophical  thought;  but  in  the  belief  of  the  multitude,  he 
soon  becomes  the  real  Son  of  God.  The  Son  of  God  creates 
a  new  world;  the  old  one  is  destroyed;  by  his  appearance,  a 
new  one  is  being  inaugurated.  By  his  appearance — should 
he  indeed  have  been  born  like  an  ordinary  man?  The 
Palestinian  Messiah  is  a  descendant  of  David,  is  born  like 
any  other  son  of  man,  enters  the  world  with  a  sublime  mission 
from  God,  yet  without  being  more  than  a  man.  But  should 
the  Logos,  the  Son  of  God,  enter  into  the  world  as  a  child  of 
human  parents — the  Logos  a  child?  the  Logos  born  in  human 
manner?  Are  those  not  contradictory  terms?  If  generation 
and  birth  can  be  spoken  of  in  connection  with  him,  they  can 
not  be  understood  as  ordinary,  natural  events.  He  is  the 
Son  of  God;  of  course  he  enters  the  flesh,  but  in  a  miraculous 
manner:  a  mother  gives  him  birth,  but  the  Spirit  of  God  is 
his  father.  That  was  a  transformation  which  necessarily 
grew  from  the  contact  with  Grecian  Judaism.  And  if  such 
was  his  entrance,  how  about  his  exit  from  the  world?  The 
Messiah  is  a  man,  even  if  vested  with  divine  power,  yet  he 
ever  remains  an  instrument  in  the  hand  of  God.     He  can  die, 


142  Judaism  and  Its  History 

can  be  killed,  he  appears  again,  he  will  inaugurate  the  new 
world,  he  rises  again,  he  is  risen  again.  But  how  can  the 
only  begotten  son  of  God,  who  bears  within  himself  the  full 
power  of  God,  be  killed?  Why  of  course  he  can  not  be  killed 
by  human  power,  but  he  may  die,  if  he  wills  it  himself — he 
can  voluntarily  give  himself  up  an  apparent  sacrifice.  The 
old  world  must  perish,  it  was  also  begotten  by  the  Logos — 
Adam  represented  the  archetype  of  the  human  race,  Adam 
bore  within  him  the  whole  of  mankind.  According  to  that 
philosophic  system  which  holds  that  everything  is  produced 
by  a  process  of  emanation  and  effluence,  and  that  the  higher 
contains  the  lower,  in  the  first  man,  in  Adam,  lay  also  the 
whole  human  race.  Now,  if  the  human  race  has  become  so 
corrupt,  if  the  old  world  has  turned  so  evil  that  it  must  perish, 
such  a  condition  must  be  referred  back  to  Adam.  He  sinned, 
and  through  his  sin  the  entire  succeeding  race  became  diseased, 
and  in  order  to  be  made  whole,  the  old  world  must  die  and  a 
new  one  arise.  But,  if  the  old  world  must  die,  must  not  all 
men  perish  with  it?  No,  the  Logos  himself,  the  creator  of 
the  human  race,  dies  for  it.  By  means  of  his  incarnation  he 
takes  upon  himself  the  whole  punishment  of  humanity,  sac- 
rifices himself  for  the  human  race;  but  his  divinity  remains, 
and  henceforward  fills  the  new  mankind. 

Such  were  the  new  conceptions  which  developed  themselves 
out  of  the  Jewish-Grecian  philosophy,  making  thorough- 
going changes  in  the  idea  concerning  God  and  coming 
very  near  to  going  beyond  the  bounds  of  Judaism.  And 
concerning  man  also,  those  new  conceptions  produced  a  mighty 
change.  Judaism  teaches  that  man  dies  for  his  sin,  that 
everyone  receives  his  punishment  for  his  own  transgressions; 
that  God  is  a  forgiving  and  merciful  God  who,  though  He 
allows  no  sin  to  go  unpunished,  yet  works  no  universal 
destruction  on  account  of  sin,  and  least  of  all,  visits  the  sin 
of  a  man  upon  others,  even  if  his  near  relatives.  Necessarily, 
a  totally  different  view  arose  upon  that  point.  In  one  man 
— of  course  in  the  first  of  all  men — all  men  had  sinned ;  guilt 
had  been  bequeathed,  all  bore  the  disease  wrought  by  that 
guilt,  it  clung  to  them  as  fetters  from  which  they  could  not 


The  Evolution  of  Christianity  143 

relieve  themselves.  That  was  the  second  phase  of  Christianity. 
Such  ideas  are  foreign  to  Judaism,  they  are  merely  grafted 
upon  it.  Some  mystical  speculative  minds  might  have 
favored  them,  but  a  general  acceptance  could  not  be  effected, 
even  among  the  Grecian  Jews. 

While  in  the  first  phase  of  Christianity,  the  Kingdom  of 
God  as  brought  about  the  human  Messiah  is  emphasized,  in 
the  second  phase,  the  Son  of  God  is  brought  to  the  front.  Of 
the  miraculous  conception  and  birth  connected  with  that 
transformation  of  ideas,  the  most  faithful  report  "according 
to  Mark"  knows  nothing;  even  if  in  its  present  form — rarely 
enough — ^here  and  there  the  expression  "Son  of  God"  occurs, 
it  occupied  pretty  much  the  first  stage  of  development  in 
which  there  T^as  no  necessity  for  such  an  idea.  Only  in  the 
second  phase  the  miraculous  generation  makes  its  appearance, 
and  still  later,  in  another  account,  which  stands  wholly  on 
Grecian  footing,  in  the  one  bearing  the  name  of  John,  we  find 
the  full,  plain  statement  that  the  Logos  became  flesh  and 
appeared  on  earth ;  that  as  the  vicar  of  the  whole  human  race 
he  had  taken  their  sins  upon  himself  and  expiated  them  by 
his  death.  Such  was  the  second  phase  of  Christianity,  and 
it  had  thereby  almost  ceased  to  represent  a  tendency  within 
Judaism,  however  much  it  kept  still  within  its  pale.  For  as 
yet  we  find  no  efforts  made  to  break  out  through  the  barriers 
of  Judaism,  to  effect  changes  and  transformations,  such  as 
to  declare  that  the  law  was  abolished  and  that  its  provisions 
had  lost  their  validity.  Of  course,  an  impulse  thereto  lay  in 
the  very  root  of  the  matter.  The  Messianic  time — such  is 
the  expression  all  through  ancient  Judaism — is  to  be  quite 
different  from  the  present,  all  special  statutes  and  ordinances 
will  cease,  all  separation  is  to  vanish.  Thus  there  was  in  the 
very  belief  that  the  Messiah  had  come,  that  a  new  world  had 
appeared,  the  impulse  to  transform  all  practices  in  life.  And 
yet,  thus  far  the  demand  is  not  uttered. 

But  the  more  the  new  tendency,  the  belief  in  the  new 
Messiahship  placed  itself  beyond  the  pale  of  Judaism,  the 
more  it  came  into  conflict  with  its  essence  and  fundamental 
principles,  so  much  the  more  it  must  have  felt  the  pressure 


144  Judaism  and  Its  History 

to  go  outside  of  it.  The  belief  had  adopted  ideas  which,  the 
farther  they  were  developed,  came  in  the  most  glaring  conflict 
with  the  basic  principles  of  Judaism;  to  remain  standing  still 
at  that  point  was  impossible;  there  was  but  this  alternative, 
either  to  pass  beyond  the  pale  of  Judaism,  or  to  cease  to  exist. 
Compromise  was  out  of  the  question.  The  impulse  for  spread- 
ing outside  of  Judaism  was  natural.  If  the  Logos  had  indeed 
appeared,  if  a  new  world  had  really  come,  that  new  world 
must  form  itself  out  of  itself  through  the  belief  in  the  Messiah 
who  had  come,  who  had  risen  to  reform  the  world;  through 
him  alone,  even  if  starting  from  Judaism,  the  new  world  must 
be  built  up.  A  man  of  force  and  decision  first  uttered  that 
word,  he  had  the  courage  to  break  down  the  bridge.  It  was 
Paul,  a  Grecian  Jew,  not  a  disciple  of  the  author  of  Christian- 
ity, who  had  never  been  in  personal  touch  with  Jesus  who  had 
always  with  determination  proclaimed  and  emphasized  the 
continuance  of  Judaism  in  all  its  parts.  Paul  at  first  per- 
secuted the  adherents  of  the  new  tendency;  he  was  a  man  of 
thoroughgoing  work  who  could  brook  no  half-way  doing. 
Either  to  oppose  the  new  departure  with  all  determination,  or 
to  carry  it  through  to  its  extremest  consequences,  such  was 
his  character.  On  the  way  to  Damascus,  that  is,  to  the  Gre- 
cian cities,  a  new  idea  struck  him:  "How,  if  in  the  tendency 
as  it  has  been  developed  by  Hellenism  there  be  a  truth,  and 
by  that  truth  a  new  order  of  things,  a  new  world  could  be 
inaugurated?  Judaism  teaches  that  the  Messiah  is  destined 
for  all  mankind;  the  Logos  is  the  creator  of  the  world,  the 
creator  of  all  mankind — well  then,  forth  to  all  mankind! 
Down  with  all  barriers!  Let  the  new  Messianic  Judaism  take 
them  all!"  Such  was  Paul's  conclusion,  and  with  that  began 
the  third  phase  of  Christianity. 

A  new  formation  now  arose.  Paul  constituted  himself  the 
Apostle  to  the  Gentiles ;  he  first  ventured  to  address  the  people 
outside  of  Judaism,  to  preach  the  new  doctrine  to  those  who 
were  outside  of  the  movement  and  unaffected  by  the  course 
of  its  development  and  must  have  been  startled  by  his  an- 
nouncement. He  carried  the  pure  doctrine  concerning  God 
into  the  pagan  world  and  made  the  Jewish  moral  and  religious 


The  Evolution  of  Christianity  145 

ideas  the  common  property  of  mankind,  but  without  the  aids 
to  their  observance  as  formulated  in  clear  and  certain  laws. 
That  was  sufficient  for  those  people,  and  the  general  spread 
of  those  truths  of  Judaism  was  a  mighty  step  in  the  advance 
of  mankind.  The  various  historically  evolved  laws  were  not 
known  to  them,  and  would  have  been  an  intolerable  burden. 
For  a  declaration  of  their  abolition  or  invalidity  no  justifica- 
tion was  called  for,  for  them;  but  for  Paul's  own  conscience 
and  for  the  believers  won  over  from  the  Jews,  it  was  neces- 
sary. Granted  even  that  the  God-given  law  has  lost  its 
binding  force  in  this  Messianic  time,  does  it  not  remain  a 
sanctifying  power,  does  it  not  exalt  those  who  still  cling  to 
it  and  observe  it?  Granted  even  that  it  should  not  be 
imposed  upon  Gentiles  as  a  binding  rule,  could  it  be  taken 
away  from  the  Jews  who  were  born  into  such  obligations? 
Should  it  not  remain  at  least  for  them  as  a  means  of  higher 
sanctification?  Should  the  express  declaration  of  its  in- 
validity not  be  postponed  at  least  until  the  return  of  the 
Messiah  and  the  complete  establishment  of  the  new  world? 
Paul  was  undecided.  Although  the  bold  idea  of  uniting  the 
whole  human  race  under  the  banner  of  one  belief  had  silenced 
all  doubts  within  his  own  heart,  it  was  not  so  easy  to  move 
his  Jewish  brethren  in  the  faith,  from  their  view.  They  had 
already  merged  the  ancient  practices  with  the  new  faith. 
Why  then,  should  they  discontinue  them?  Paul  hesitated, 
and  drew  a  distinction:  "Let  the  Jews  cling  to  their  ancient 
accustomed  law;  for  the  Gentiles,  the  new  belief  is  sufficient." 
But  that  brought  a  dangerous  cleft  into  the  new  faith  and 
Paul's  entire  plan  would  have  been  wrecked  thereby.  Such 
a  double-headed  arrangement  of  votaries  of  the  same  belief, 
producing  in  itself  confusion,  bore  the  germ  of  dissolution  in 
its  own  bosom.  By  it,  the  Gentiles  did  not  appear  as  citizens 
of  equal  rights  in  the  new  Empire  of  Religion;  the  Jews 
remained  the  privileged  class  of  saints  by  birth  and  the 
continued  observance  of  the  law,  the  Gentile  believers  were 
but  an  unholy  appendage.  And  just  they  were  the  main 
support  of  Paul. 

Thus  Paul  was  forced  to  take  a  further  step.     It  was  not 


146  Judaism  and  Its  History 

sufficient  to  designate  the  *'Law"  as  superfluous,  as  dis- 
pensable, it  must  be  entirely  abolished,  it  must  be  declared 
an  obstacle  to  holiness.  The  present  observance  of  the  law, 
such  was  his  next  proceeding,  is  not  merely  unmeritorious, 
it  is  the  result  of  a  defective  faith,  the  true  believer  is  not 
even  permitted  to  practice  the  ordinances  of  the  Law.  How 
should  the  observance  of  the  Law  be  a  sin?  Was  it  not  given 
by  God?  Was  it  not  binding  in  former  days,  and  should  now 
its  observance  be  even  sinful?  Yes  indeed,  Paul  made 
response,  the  Law  was  given  by  God,  but  in  behalf  of  sinful 
mankind  to  the  Jews;  it  is  in  a  measure,  the  result  of  sin; 
it  is  a  "yoke,"  but  not  a  sweet  one,  it  is  a  hard  and  heavy 
yoke.  The  new  faith  is  a  sweet  yoke,  a  blessing  for  all 
mankind;  the  old  law  was  a  curse,  a  scourge  for  the  Jewish 
people;  the  ban  is  removed  in  consequence  of  the  vicarious 
death  of  Jesus;  the  whole,  human  race,  the  Jews  as  well  as 
the  Gentiles,  are  now  sanctified  through  the  Holy  Spirit 
which  has  been  poured  out  over  all  mankind.  And  will  ye 
be  willing  to  remain  further  under  the  curse,  under  the 
scourge,  now  when  a  blessing,  a  kinder  treatment  awaits 
you?  Break  the  Law!  If  you  desire  to  be  the  saints,  you 
must  fully  acknowledge  the  fulfilled  salvation.  Away  with 
circumcision,  away  with  the  dietary  laws!  The  former  is  a 
token  of  the  old  covenant,  a  new  one  has  been  established; 
the  latter  consider  the  Gentile  meats  as  idolatrous  sacrificial 
repasts,  but  they  have  now  become  feasts  of  love  and  sweet 
communion. 

That  line  of  thought  was,  on  the  one  hand,  the  most 
logical  consistency,  but  contained  also,  on  the  other  hand,  the 
most  trenchant  severity  against  Judaism,  because  not  alone 
its  forms,  while  appropriating  its  fundamental  principles, 
were  represented  as  worthless,  but  because  it  was  violently 
divested  of  its  entire  profound  intrinsic  substance.  A  recon- 
ciliation of  such  views  with  Judaism,  "even  if  representing  it 
as  a  divine  institution  but  merely  for  the  past,  could  be 
established  only  by  the  most  artful  dialectics,  which  Paul 
practised  by  both  oral  instruction  and  epistles.  He  created 
an  imposing  effect,  but  did  not  carry  matters  so  easily.    A 


The  Evolution  of  Christianity  147 

violent  struggle  arose  between  the  so-called  Judaizing  Chris- 
tians and  the  Gentile  Christians.  The  doctrine  of  Judaizing 
Christianity — i.  e.,  Messianism  joined  to  continued  observ- 
ance of  the  whole  Jewish  Law — was  predominating;  the  new 
(Paulinian)  tendency  seeking  to  obtrude  itself  upon  it,  was 
contended  against,  not  alone  by  the  Jews,  but  also  by  the 
Judaizing  Christians.  The  new  Christians  were  called 
Balaamites,  men  who  attempted  to  introduce  idolatrous 
sacrifices  among  the  Jews,  as  Balaam  had  sought  to  lead  the 
Israelites  astray  by  idolatrous  practices.  Violent  struggles 
and  frequent  splits  occurred  within  the  various  congregations; 
mutual  concessions  were  made  and  peace  was  restored;  only 
after  a  long  time,  after  many  ups  and  downs  in  the  fight. 
Gentile  Christianity  prevailed,  as  it  was  in  the  nature  of  the 
case.  Within  Judaism,  the  contradiction  of  the  ideas  was 
too  glaring — there  could  be  no  harmony  of  mind  in  an  indi- 
vidual who  attempted  to  be  a  Jew  on  the  one  side,  and  tried 
to  accept  for  the  present,  Messiah  and  Logos  ideas — to  be  a 
worshiper  of  the  One  God  and  to  make  an  addition  by  a  new 
element  of  God.  The  conflict  did  not  last  long;  Judaizing 
Christianity  succumbed  to  pagan-Gentile  Christianity  which 
was  the  third  phase  of  Christianity.  Heathendom  had  formerly 
been  held  to  be  unclean,  impure,  unholy;  now  the  Holy  Spirit 
— a  genuine  Jewish  idea  in  itself — entered  the  new  world, 
purifying  and  sanctifying  it.  The  third  phase  was  now  com- 
plete, and  with  that  belief  in  the  Holy  Ghost  which  pours  out 
over  all  mankind  and  acts  as  a  creative  personality,  comes 
into  prominence.  Thus  there  was  in  three  phases  of  develop- 
ment which  could  not  be  parted  from  one  another  and  which 
were  bound  to  run  together  into  one  complete  course,  the 
belief  in  the  Trinity.  God  and  His  Kingdom  was  the  first 
phase;  the  Son  of  God  to  establish  the  Kingdom,  was  the 
second;  the  Holy  Spirit  to  purify  all  mankind,  constituted  the 
third ;  their  connection  into  a  unit  thenceforward  formed  the 
essence  of  the  belief.  Christianity,  thus  fully  developed,  was 
destined  to  enter  heathendom. 

But  could  it  indeed  enter  heathendom — were  the  pagans 
prepared  and  inclined  to  adopt  it?     Let  us  now  cast  a  glance 


148  Judaism  and  Its  History 

at  the  pagan  world.  We  no  longer  stand  on  the  ground  of 
ancient  Hellenism.  The  educated  classes  of  the  time  are  no 
longer  illumined  by  philosophy,  no  longer  develop  their  ideas 
with  an  original  creative  energy,  as  at  the  time  of  the  ancient 
Greeks — we  behold  a  very  different  age.  Roman  spirit  rules 
that  world,  everything  proceeds  from  Rome,  her  hand  rests 
heavily  on  all  nations.  Rome  has  a  great  mission  to  fulfill 
in  the  world's  history,  and  is  fulfilling  it,  somewhat  in  the 
same  manner  as  absolutism  works  in  the  evolution  of  the  state. 
Absolutism,  that  rule  of  might  by  one  man  without  regard  to 
the  rights  of  all  the  rest,  which  is  so  clearly  designated  by 
the  words  of  Louis  XIV.:  "L'etat,  c'est  moV — "I  am  the 
state" — as  a  form  of  government,  represents,  properly  speak- 
ing, no  idea  at  all;  it  has  no  innate  justification  for  investing 
one  man  with  all  possible  power,  and  divesting  all  the  others 
of  their  natural  rights,  yet  absolutism  has  its  place  in  the 
historic  evolution — it  was  its  mission  to  level  mankind,  to 
produce  an  equality  of  the  various  prerogatives  that  had 
grown  up  as  estates  with  all  their  perverted  phenomena;  to 
destroy  at  one  blow,  all  those  prerogatives  that  had  become 
an  obstacle  in  the  world's  progress;  to  convert  all  into  slaves 
first,  in  order  that  afterwards  all  might  become  free  citizens, 
and  that  every  one  of  them  might  have  free  chance  according 
to  his  ability  and  merit.  A  similar  mission  was  that  of  Rome 
in  the  history  of  the  world.  Rome  united  the  world  under 
one  and  the  same  oppression,  brought  all  nations  into  servi- 
tude, forced  their  approach  to  one  another,  and  brought  them 
close  together.  Rome  did  not  develop  from  within  herself 
any  peculiar  native  spiritual  power  or  ideas;  whatever  she 
accomplished  in  the  realm  of  the  mind  was  imitation,  was 
adopted,  and  merely  adopted  superficially  and  poorly. 
Philosophy  dragged  on  a  sickly  life  among  the  Romans,  and 
was  popularized  in  the  most  sober  conceptions;  all  other 
mental  and  spiritual  products  that  gained  authority,  had 
been  received  from  without,  borrowed,  transplanted  upon 
Roman  soil,  but  were  not  sustained  by  creative  vigor,  did  not 
originate  from  native  excellence. 

If  mental  and  spiritual  life  in  general  did  not  occupy  a 


The  Evolution  of  Christianity  149 

high  plane,  it  was  but  natural  that  the  idea  of  God,  the 
doctrine  concerning  gods,  was  in  a  still  worse  condition. 
The  mythology  of  the  Greeks  was  not  the  strongest  point  of 
their  culture,  of  their  spiritual  life,  but  yet  there  is  a  certain 
ideality  in  it;  it  bears  the  impress  of  the  law  of  beauty;  it 
contains  ideas  which,  though  they  are  wrapped  in  corporeal 
forms  and  as  such  sensible  phenomena  were  not  deeply  rooted 
in  the  mind  of  the  people,  could  nevertheless  give  the  impulse 
to  a  higher  conception,  and  philosophy  deepened  that  con- 
ception. In  Rome,  mythology  was  something  bare,  a  kind 
of  home-made  product.  The  gods  of  the  house,  the  Lares  and 
Penates,  were  to  a  certain  degree  the  center  of  religious  life; 
the  boundaries  of  the  fields  received  consecration;  the  affairs 
of  every-day  life,  of  the  rude  popular  power,  were  personified 
and  worshiped  as  gods.  And  when  with  advancing  culture, 
with  the  contact  with  Hellenism,  not  alone  general  science, 
though  in  rather  faded  state,  but  also  an  acquaintance  with 
Greek  mythology  entered  Rome,  a  curious  mixture  took  place: 
the  Greek  divinities  were  identified  with  those  of  ancient 
Rome,  the  former  were  forced  down  from  their  ideal  heights, 
and  the  latter  were  divested  of  their  originality.  Thence- 
forward there  were  but  shadows  that  the  people  adored. 

Then  even  in  Hellenism,  a  tendency  arose  to  divest  Greek 
mythology  of  all  poetic  character,  and  very  soon  Rome  was 
ready  to  adopt  the  same.  Euhemeros  was  the  name  of  a 
Grecian  author  who  reduced  mythology  to  the  level  of  most 
vulgar  rationalism.  The  gods — thus  he  taught — ^were  great 
kings  who  were  glorified  and  raised  into  high  position  by  later 
admirers.  All  that  is  related  of  them  is  but  embellishment 
of  common  events  which  we  must  trace  back  to  their  plain, 
natural  realities.  If,  for  example,  Kronos  is  said  to  have 
swallowed  his  own  children  and  to  have  been  dethroned  by 
Jupiter,  he  makes  it  out  to  be  the  history  of  a  king  in  ancient 
times,  when  human  sacrifices  were  in  vogue,  who  was  de- 
throned by  another  king  that  abolished  such  immolation  of 
human  beings.  In  such  way  everything  in  Greek  mythology 
was  flattened  out,  divested  of  its  deeper  meaning;  for  after 
all,  poetic  thought,  even  if  clothed  in  fanciful  garb  of  the 


150  JXJDAISM  AND  ItS  HiSTORY 

imagination,  is  more  profound  than  such  platitude.  That 
conception  soon  invaded  Rome;  the  book  of  Euhemeros  was 
translated  into  Latin,  and  his  views  became  predominant. 
The  old  customs  still  prevailed,  the  old  priestly  institution, 
the  ancient  sacrificial  service,  the  examination  of  the  entrails 
of  the  sacrificed  animals,  the  observation  of  the  flight  of  birds 
— all  were  still  in  practice,  but  the  belief  in  them  no  longer 
existed.  It  became  almost  a  proverbial  saying  that  two 
augurs  meeting  had  to  do  all  in  their  power  not  to  burst  into 
laughter.  If  the  gods  were  but  human  beings,  it  was  naturally 
an  easy  step  to  make  gods  out  of  men,  and  it  came  about 
that  the  emperors  with  their  passions  and  follies  were  adored 
as  gods,  and  they  demanded  and  received  such  divine  worship. 
To  such  a  low  point  all  religious  life  had  sunk  in  Rome  and 
in  the  world  in  which  she  ruled. 

But  human  nature  is  not  satisfied  with  such  a  state  of 
things.  As  there  arose  bold  disbelief  on  the  one  side,  so 
started  on  the  other  side  a  longing  for  another  faith,  a  desire 
for  a  higher  idea,  for  something  wonderful  that  does  not  meet 
the  eye,  day  after  day  in  the  natural  course  of  events.  Along- 
side of  disbelief,  superstition  arose ;  for  such  is  human  nature 
that,  by  the  side  of  luxuriant  materialism,  rapping  spirits  are 
honored.  Thus  Rome  became  full  of  a  number  of  the  most 
varying  and  heterogeneous  ways  of  divine  worship.  The 
Oriental  divinities  which,  by  their  novelty  and  their  mys- 
terious character,  offered  stimulation  to  the  imagination, 
were  in  great  preference.  Judaism  also  spread  in  Rome  to  a 
considerable  extent,  but  it  was  too  serious  and  too  earnest  a 
religion  to  be  accepted  by  the  degenerate  Roman  world  at 
large.  Now,  a  new  belief  presented  itself,  which  was  in  close 
touch  with  heathendom,  and  yet  was  altogether  different.  A 
man  who  was  at  the  same  time  a  god,  was  the  center;  but 
the  manner  and  form  of  his  appearance,  the  doctrine  con- 
nected with  the  belief  in  him,  had  impressed  upon  that  new 
religion  a  character  such  as  had,  until  then,  not  been  pre- 
sented to  them.  It  must  have  made  a  deep  impression, 
acted  as  a  caustic,  and  gave  new  elasticity  to  the  enervated 
minds.     And  thus  the  doctrine  of  Christianity,  in  its  third 


The  Evolution  of  Christianity  151 

phase,  when  it  had  become  accessible  to  the  whole  human 
race,  made  its  entrance  into  heathendom.  It  went  in,  not 
as  a  triumphator,  not  as  a  power  that  strikes  like  a  bolt  of 
lightning  illuminating  the  minds  and  overpowering,  but  very 
gradually,  after  being  fought  against  for  a  long  time,  and  only 
after  centuries,  raised  to  the  throne  and  made  dominating  the 
religion  by  an  event  that  has  not  yet  been  fully  cleared  up. 
After  a  long  protracted  struggle,  it  penetrated  into  the 
heathen  world — it  was  then  Christianity  completely  severed 
from  Judaism.  It  went  its  own  way,  and  we  are  not  called 
upon  to  farther  follow  its  history.  Yet  it  is  for  us  to  give 
an  answer  to  the  question.  Is  there  any  task  left  to  Judaism 
by  the  side  of  Christianity  which  has  now  become  a  religion 
of  the  world?  Or  is  Judaism  in  a  state  of  decay,  an  ancient 
ruin  that  should  be  abandoned?  The  reply  to  that  question 
which  forces  itself  upon  us  requires,  before  we  follow  the 
history  of  Judaism  any  farther,  that  we  take  yet  another  look 
at  Christianity. 


XL 

Christianity  as  an  Ecclesiastical  World-Power. 
The  Destruction  of  Jewish  Nationality. 

The  inspiring  proclamation  which  the  prophets  of  Judaism 
had  sent  into  the  world  with  the  most  determined  confidence 
— namely,  that  a  time  shall  come  when  God  alone  shall  be 
acknowledged,  when  peace  based  upon  justice  shall  unite  and 
gladden  all  mankind — that  glance  at  an  ennobled  future  of 
truth  and  human  brotherhood  contained  a  decided  energy 
which  afforded  Judaism  durability  and  courage  and  conferred 
upon  it  a  never-failing  self-confidence  going  hand  in  hand  with 
the  very  development  of  mankind.  In  direct  contrast  to 
Greek  mythology,  which  places  the  golden  age  in  the  very 
cradle  of  the  human  race,  and  lets  it  be  followed  by  times 
more  and  more  worthless,  Judaism  preserves  the  sublime 
belief  that  mankind  is  the  fertile  soil  out  of  which  the  seed  of 
the  spirit  shall  ripen  into  an  abundant  harvest.  Hence  also 
the  mighty  perseverance  displayed  by  Judaism;  and  this  very 
hope  has  proved  its  preserving  energy  throughout  the  cen- 
turies. But  now,  if  such  hope  is  not  merely  hailed  as  one  the 
fruition  of  which  yet  was  to  be  in  a  distant  future,  if  it  is 
announced  as  one  soon  to  be  fulfilled,  if  times  appear  when 
men  boldly  proclaim,  "The  present  world  is  broken  down  to 
its  very  foundation — the  new  world,  the  Messianic  time  must 
and  will  soon  take  its  place,"  then  that  confidence,  that  glance 
at  the  speedily  approaching  future  in  which  a  complete 
betterment  and  transformation  was  to  take  place,  created  a 
courage  and  a  strength  which  could  make  front  and  battle 
against  the  greatest  obstacles.  We  beheld  that  phenomenon 
in  the  time  of  the  Maccabean  wars  which,  although  a  sore 
trial,  yet  could  not  break  the  popular  strength,  because  the 
sure  conviction  of  a  change  of  the  conditions  living  in  the 


Christianity  as  an  Ecclesiastical  World-Power  153 

minds  of  the  people,  produced  an  unconquerable,  unshaken 
confidence.  But  now,  if  even  the  proclamation  is  made, 
"The  old  world  has  perished,  is  broken  up,  the  new  one  has 
already  appeared;  a  new  human  race,  as  it  was  promised, 
now  lives  and  shall  live  henceforth" — that  belief  in  oneself, 
that  confidence  entertained  by  mankind  or  a  portion  of  man- 
kind, such  increased  self -consciousness  contains  a  power 
which  naturally  invested  that  portion  of  mankind,  not  only 
with  an  intensive  elasticity  to  persevere  even  under  the  most 
trying  conditions,  but  even  to  present  an  imposing  front  to 
the  world  at  large. 

A  sublime  self-confidence,  the  bold  assertion  of  one's  own 
power,  bears  within  itself  such  an  energy  that  the  rest  of  the 
world  is  astonished  and  shaken  thereby.  We  see  such  an 
effect  in  the  history  of  even  individuals.  If  a  man  confronts 
the  world  with  the  full  conviction  of  his  own  worth,  if  he  has 
the  belief  in  himself,  he  will  obtain  much,  his  bold  demand  will 
actually  compel  many  to  yield  to  him ;  his  belief  in  himself  will 
beget  also  the  belief  of  others  in  him.  Review  the  great  char- 
acters in  the  world's  history  and  you  will  find  this  generally 
proven :  they  became  great  because  they  presented  themselves 
with  the  claim  of  being  great.  When  Caesar  said,  **This  ship 
carries  Caesar  and  his  destiny,"  such  an  expression  of  his  full 
conviction,  that  the  destiny  of  the  whole  world  was  interlaced 
with  his  own,  contained  an  imposing  power.  When  the 
French  Revolution  entered  into  the  world's  history  with  the 
determined  conviction,  "The  old  times  have  perished,  a 
completely  new  time  must  come,"  when  it  announced  itself 
as  a  New  Era  with  which  a  new  computation  of  time  must 
begin,  its  successes  did  not  come  so  much  from  the  new  ideas 
which  it  created,  nor  from  the  positive  truths  which  it  pro- 
claimed, but  from  its  very  determination,  from  its  belief  in 
itself.  That  constituted  its  triumphant  power  that  gave  it 
the  impulse  to  spread  all  over  the  world.  If  it  was  indeed  a 
new  world,  the  whole  earth  must  be  subjected  to  it,  no  barrier 
of  any  nationality  must  impede  its  onward  march.  That 
constituted  also  the  power  of  Christianity  when  it  presented 
itself  to  the  world. 


154  Judaism  and  Its  History 

Christianity  proclaimed,  "I  am  the  new  mankind,  the  new 
world  is  come,  the  old  world  is  dead  and  broken  up."  That 
was  a  word  making  an  epoch ;  and  if  the  author  of  Christianity 
is  represented  as  having  said,  "I  am  the  truth,  the  way,  and 
the  life,"  the  words  are  probably  apocryphal,  the  idea  and 
the  claims  with  which  Christianity  represented  itself  to  the 
world  found  their  full  expression  in  them.  I  am  a  new  power, 
a  new  world,  all  must  yield  to  me;  before  me  there  was 
nothing,  before  me — such  was  the  assertion — there  were  but 
sin,  decay,  and  spiritual  perversity;  all  the  wisdom  of  former 
times  is  but  tinkling  folly,  all  their  virtue  but  shining  vice. 
Even  while  it  puts  its  structure  on  the  foundation  of  Judaism, 
acknowledged  the  ancient  sacred  scriptures  of  the  Jews, 
adopted  their  contents,  it  yet  announced — and  if  it  is  not 
found  in  the  earlier  writings,  it  is  the  full  consequence  of  its 
doctrine  and  is  contained  in  the  teaching  of  Paul — that  the 
author  of  Christianity  had  to  descend  into  hell  in  order  to 
save  all  the  damned  souls  of  former  times.  All  those  pa- 
triarchs, devout  men,  prophets,  preachers  of  truth  and 
religion,  were  acknowledged  of  course,  yet  they  were  doomed 
to  spiritual  death.  *'For  with  me,"  such  was  the  assertion, 
"the  new  race  begins,  and  all  that  existed  before  is  vain,  and 
not  only  vain,  but  entirely  corrupt."  Such  boldness 
contains  a  force  which  not  only  exerts  an  inspiring  influence 
upon  its  adherents,  but  also  has  a  startling  effect  upon 
outsiders.  And  if  such  claims  happen  to  strike  an  age  and 
a  community  that  are  really  decayed  and  in  a  decline,  they 
take  them  as  productive  of  full  health.  Mankind  at  the 
time,  had  become  severed  from  its  former  phases  of  develop- 
ment; it  had  arrived  at  a  point  where  decay  commences;  its 
vigor  formerly  existing  in  Hellenism  and  indirectly  transmitted 
to  Rome,  was  exhausted,  had  lost  its  impulse.  From  the 
decay  in  all  conditions  they  found  but  one  way  of  salvation, 
and  that  way  was  disavowal  of  this  world,  in  casting  off 
everything  that  appeared  unsound.  With  all  that,  Chris- 
tianity had  to  struggle  for  several  centuries  before  it  prevailed, 
as  it  was  bound  to  prevail  in  that  degenerate  Grecian-Roman 
world.     Whether  it  would  have  been  able  to  effect  a  reforma- 


Christianity  as  an  Ecclesiastical  World-Power  155 

tion  and  new  creation  within  the  empire,  is  a  question  un- 
answered by  history.  It  swept  away,  like  a  wind-storm,  all 
the  withered  leaves  of  the  ancient  culture,  and  covered  up 
all  fragments  of  the  ancient  magnificent  mental  structure;  but 
whether  it  would  then  have  been  able  to  construct  new 
edifices  on  the  sam.e  ground,  we  may  just  as  well  answer 
negatively,  as  it  is  claimed  affirmatively  by  others;  history 
leaves  us  without  the  slightest  intimation  on  that  point.  We 
may  perhaps  find  in  Byzantinism,  which  represents  a  con- 
tinued development  of  the  Grecian  world  within  Christianity, 
such  an  intimation  of  an  answer  to  the  query  where  the  world 
would  have  been  driven  if  the  ancient  elements  had  been 
permitted  to  develop  under  the  rule  of  Christianity — that 
answer  would  not  be  favorable,  of  course. 

But  the  new  world  was  destined  to  take  a  different  course. 
Antiquity  was  annihilated,  not  only  in  its  remnants,  by 
Christianity,  it  was  also  in  part  destroyed  in  its  very  elements, 
thoroughly  riddled  and  mixed  up  with  new  material.  The 
migration  of  nations  brought  a  host  of  uncivilized  new  people, 
still  possessing  pristine  vigor,  into  that  ancient  world.  And 
there  Christianity  unfolded  its  special  important  power;  there 
it  fulfilled  its  great  mission  within  mankind.  There  no  ancient 
recollections  were  to  be  wiped  out — those  nations  had  no 
history  in  the  true  sense  of  the  word — they  possessed  no 
peculiar  culture  of  their  own,  but  they  were  characters  of 
primitive  vigor.  To  meet  that,  and  to  thunder  into  their 
ears,  their  minds,  their  conscience,  "Your  force  is  nothing,  your 
intrepidity  is  wickedness,  your  natural  propensities  are  sin, 
all  your  creature  endowments  are  degeneracy" — to  tame  those 
iron  bodies,  and  make  gentle  those  obstinate  spirits,  to  startle 
those  rude  consciences,  that  was  the  task  of  a  world-power, 
of  a  power  that  asserted  of  itself,  "I  am  all  in  all;  all  your 
actions,  all  your  efforts,  all  your  boasts  of  your  bodily  strength 
with  which  you  might  confront  an  enervated  world,  all  those 
are  vain.  You  must  bend  your  necks  under  my  yoke." 
Such  an  autocratic  edict  prepared  the  nature  of  those  people 
for  a  truly  spiritual  and  moral  culture,  the  religious  and  moral 
elements  that  were  thrown  out  of  Christianity  into  that  virgin 


156  Judaism  and  Its  History 

soil  found  a  fertile  ground  there,  receptive  to  produce  mature 
fruit.  This  is  the  grand  work  of  Christianity,  that  it  met 
as  a  spiritual  power  a  raw  product  of  nature,  a  power  that 
boasted  merely  of  stalwart  arms  and  iron  strength  of  bodies. 
And  Christianity  executed  at  the  same  time,  its  grand  mission 
by  this,  that  it  united  the  nations  hitherto  living  in  isolation 
and  stupid  seclusion,  that  it  entwined  the  bond  of  humanity 
around  those  separate  and  selfishly  closed-up  elements,  infused 
into  them  ideas  of  a  common  interest,  and  wove  them  together 
into  a  great  human  aspiration.  That  is  the  power  of  Chris- 
tianity. 

But  that  which  was,  and  still  is,  its  power,  is  at  the  same 
time  its  weakness.  It  made  the  assertion,  "I  am  the  new 
world,  all  that  existed  before  is  nothing,"  and  accordingly 
smashed  and  destroyed  everything  humane,  beautiful,  and 
noble,  that  earlier  times  had  produced.  It  is  not  due  to 
Christianity,  if  anything  has  been  saved  out  of  the  wrecking. 
For  it  opposed  with  a  perfect  mania  for  destruction,  not  only 
what  was  idolatrous  and  pagan  as  such,  but  all  the  mental 
treasures  of  Antiquity  too — all  was  adjudged  to  be  the  work 
of  the  devil,  all  must  be  destroyed.  The  genius  of  mankind 
has  ordered  with  more  charity,  has  saved  it  from  losing  it 
all,  it  has  saved  productions  of  the  art  and  the  science  of 
earlier  times,  some  in  fragments,  others  in  full,  fine  form,  in 
order  that  later  times  may  be  elevated  and  fertilized  through 
them;  the  genius  of  mankind  has  protected  it  against  such 
complete  self-destruction,  and  that  too,  in  the  most  deter- 
mined opposition  to  the  demands  of  Christianity,  and  has 
shown  that  it  is  mightier  than  the  latter.  Christianity  dis- 
avowed the  old  world,  denied  both  its  proper  existence  and 
its  right  of  existence — all  right  was  to  begin  with  itself  and 
from  thenceforth  it  never  tolerated  anything  to  exist  by  its 
side  as  long  as  it  had  the  power  of  suppression.  "There  is 
nothing  outside  of  me,  I  am  mankind,  I  rule  mankind,  all 
the  actions  of  the  world  must  be  under  my  superintendence, 
must  be  according  to  my  rule,"  such  is  its  ever-recurring 
demand.  Every  development  in  the  human  world  which 
would  take  its  course  by  the  side  of  Christianity,  was  desig- 


Christianity  as  an  Ecclesiastical  World-Power  157 

nated  by  it  as  a  sin,  as  heresy,  and  fought  against  with  all 
determination.  When  we  contemplate  the  world's  history 
with  an  unprejudiced  eye,  we  find  the  assertion  that  Chris- 
tianity is  the  mother  of  modern  culture  a  decided  error. 
The  Christian  Religion,  the  Church  representing  its  body,  has 
always  fought  against  science,  she  has  invariably  declared 
every  light  that  would  shine  beside  her  own,  to  be  a  will-o'- 
the-wisp,  false  light  that  must  be  put  out. 

For  that  reason,  its  power  could  not  gain  full  entrance 
into  those  portions  of  mankind  whose  native  character  was 
still  healthy,  and  which  still  produced  from  within  themselves 
a  healthy  development.  Even  paganism  made  a  long  fight 
with  Christianity,  not  because  it  so  highly  honored  its  idols 
and  considered  them  as  nearer  to  truth  than  the  doctrine  of 
Christianity.  That  belief  had  long  been  shaken,  that  struggle 
proceeded  from  the  higher  culture  among  the  pagans.  Their 
philosophic  schools  disputed  the  teachings  of  the  new  religion 
with  an  enthusiasm  born  of  their  love  of  science.  The  neo- 
platonic,  neo-pythagorean,  and  other  schools  protested  with 
all  their  might  against  the  glorification  of  ignorance,  against 
the  praise  given  to  the  poor  in  spirit,  against  the  lustre  that 
was  claimed  to  attach  to  the  lack  of  wisdom.  Christianity 
had  great  difficulty  to  force  that  power  of  a  higher  culture  to 
yield.  Only  fire  and  sword,  the  greatest  physical  horrors,  not 
the  power  of  the  spirit,  finally  annihilated  its  fragments.  Yet 
in  the  ninth  century  such  scattered  remnants  as  had  been 
preserved  in  the  East,  the  Harranensians,  asserted  with  full 
consciousness  that  they  stood  far  higher  than  the  Christians. 
Thabet  Ben  Korra,  a  Harranensian  Syrian  pagan — for  even 
into  the  tenth  century  philosophic  Hellenism  had  preserved 
its  existence  in  those  regions,  until  the  combined  fury  of 
Christianity  and  Mohammedanism  succeeded  in  destroying 
even  those  small  remnants — Thabet  Ben  Korra  says  in  one 
of  his  books,  "When  many  were  subjected  by  violence  to 
error,  our  fathers  persevered  with  the  help  of  God,  and  escaped 
through  their  heroism,  and  this  blessed  city  (Harran)  has 
never  been  defiled  by  the  errors  from  Nazareth.  We  are  now 
the  heirs  and  transmitters  of  heathenism  which  shone. so 


158  Judaism  and  Its  History 

brilliantly  in  this  world.  Happy  is  he  that,  with  unshaken 
confidence,  endures  sufferings  for  the  sake  of  heathenism. 
Who  rendered  the  earth  habitable,  who  built  the  cities  for 
places  of  abode  for  families,  who  else  than  the  nobles  and 
kings  of  heathenism?  Who  constructed  the  havens,  made 
the  rivers  navigable,  who  discovered  hidden  sciences?  .  . 
Only  the  renowned  among  the  heathens  have  fathomed 
that,  have  caused  soothing  of  souls  to  come  about,  shown  the 
means  for  their  liberation;  they  have  also  discovered  and 
taught  the  healing  of  the  flesh;  they  alone  have  filled  the 
world  with  well-ordered  morals,  with  wisdom  which  is  the 
chief  of  excellency.  Without  those  fruits  of  heathenism,  the 
world  would  be  void,  poor,  wrapped  in  deficiency  and  scanti- 
ness." That  is  a  proud  assertion,  but  an  assertion  emanating 
from  the  consciousness  of  the  object  in  view,  to  which  the 
latest  remnants  of  philosophic  paganism  clung  with  perfect 
clearness  in  their  struggle  against  Christianity.  And  again, 
when  the  nations  attained  to  independence,  when  a  new 
human  culture  grew  up  within  them,  when  they  awoke  to  a 
free  use  of  their  mental  and  spiritual  powers,  then  also  the 
struggle  at  once  began  against  Christianity,  as  well  as  the 
fight  of  Christianity  against  all  those  new  formations  which 
it  condemned  as  heresy  and  even  condemns  today  in  its 
consistency.  For  the  power  of  Catholicism  consists  in  this, 
that  it  most  decidedly  asserts  the  claims  of  Christianity  in  all 
their  consequences,  that  it  represents  itself  as  the  only  power 
on  earth  vested  with  the  prerogative  of  regarding  the  whole 
world  as  subject  to  its  authority,  that  it  appoints  bishops  in 
partibus  infidelium,  that  it  maintains,  "I  alone  am  the  human 
race,  and  to  those  who  represent  me,  the  whole  world  must 
do  homage,  all  consciences  must  disclose  themselves  to  them, 
all  spirits  must  bow  to  them,  and  all  impulses  and  endow- 
ments of  men  must  yield  their  service  to  me." 

That  assertion  which  constitutes  the  power  of  Chris- 
tianity, contains  also  its  weakness  which  is  that  it  is  not 
willing  to  work  as  a  spiritual  power  within  mankind,  but 
claims  to  stand  above  mankind,  and  denies  humanity  itself 
in  all  its  other  relations.     It  would  be  folly  joined  to  bias- 


Christianity  as  an  Ecclesiastical  World-Power  159 

phemy,  were  we  to  deny  that  a  religion  which  has  exhibited 
such  a  power  through  eighteen  centuries,  has  not  a  mission 
imposed  upon  it  by  God;  but  on  the  other  hand,  it  would  be 
no  less  a  defiance  of  history  if  we  were  to  deny  a  historic 
mission  to  that  religion  which  is  the  mother  and  root  of  the 
new  religion  and  which,  throughout  all  the  period  that  the 
other  developed  its  power  to  its  full  extent,  still  preserved 
its  existence  despite  all  oppression  and  derision,  poverty  and 
broken  conditions,  aye,  even  when  its  spiritual  eye  was  by 
violence  covered  with  darkness — to  that  religion  which  has, 
despite  all  that,  preserved  its  existence,  exhibited  its  vitality 
with  renewed  freshness  whenever  it  was  permitted  to  move, 
and  at  all  times  retained  a  fund  of  spiritual  ability,  moral 
stimulation,  and  moral  power.  It  could  not  have  existed 
throughout  that  long  period  alongside  of  Christianity,  it  must 
have  decayed,  it  must  have  died  long  ago  or  have  been 
brought  near  death,  if  it  did  not  have  within  itself  a  healthy 
vitality. 

Yes,  Judaism  has  been  preserved  alongside  of  Chris- 
tianity, and  despite  Christianity.  It  has  been  assailed  not 
alone  with  carnal  weapons,  with  fire  and  sword,  with  expulsion 
and  oppression,  but  also  with,  spiritual  weapons;  all  the  good 
and  noble  elements  accorded  to  Judaism  before  it  had  given 
birth  to  Christianity,  were  adjudged  as  simply  a  preparation 
for  Christianity,  as  Christian  property  even  before  its  exist- 
ence. Judaism  has  kept  alive  nevertheless,  has  saved  its 
eternal  treasures,  and  has  not  allowed  itself  to  be  dimmed. 
It  has  not  permitted  its  belief  in  God  to  be  disfigured  and 
combined  with  foreign  elements.  It  has  not  allowed  the 
doctrine  of  original  sin  to  be  grafted  into  it,  though  great 
pains  were  taken  in  the  attempt  to  deduce  that  idea  from  the 
Scriptures;  it  has  not  permitted  the  annihilation  of  the  title 
of  the  nobifity  of  mankind  and  has  clung  to  the  conviction 
that  man  has  been  invested  by  God  with  the  power  of  free 
self-determination  and  self-improvement;  that  despite  the 
sensual  propensity  innate  in  man*s  nature,  he  is  vested  with 
the  power  of  conquering  it  and  of  reaching  by  his  own  exertions 
the  goal  of  elation  and  ennoblement.    And  precisely  because 


160  Judaism  and  Its  History 

it  remained  free  from  the  doctrine  of  original  sin  and  the  cor- 
ruption of  human  nature,  it  never  had  any  need  or  desire  for 
again  attaining  purification  by  means  of  an  extraneous 
redemption.  It  has  never  exchanged  its  Merciful  God  for  the 
God  of  that  Love  which,  to  satisfy  its  anger,  requires  a  grand, 
sufficiently  vicarious  sacrifice.  Judaism  has  not  regarded  the 
development  of  mankind  towards  a  higher  goal  as  a  negation 
of  itself,  and  therefore  has  never  undertaken  a  fight  against 
the  process;  it  has  never  announced  the  verdict:  "The  time 
is  already  fulfilled;  eighteen  centuries  ago  the  keystone  was 
put  in,  being  the  keystone  of  one  world  and  at  the  same  time, 
the  foundation  stone  of  another — there  is  the  whole  truth; 
nothing  can  be  added." 

Christianity  must  needs  look  upon  that  time  as  the  most 
important  in  the  world's  history,  it  is  its  heart  and  center — 
the  person  that  brought  it  about  must  always  remain  its 
highest  ideal.  Even  the  most  liberal-minded,  who  divest  the 
author  of  Christianity  of  everything  miraculous  about  him, 
can  not  escape  the  urgent  necessity  of  creating  for  themselves, 
in  order  to  retain  some  connection  with  their  religion,  a 
fanciful,  artificially  constructed  ideal  to  which  they  attribute 
the  greatest  earthly  perfection — a  form  which  falls  to  pieces 
before  criticism  far  more  quickly  than  the  old  massive  pre- 
sentation. Judaism,  on  the  contrary,  can  dispense  with 
individualities,  it  can  allow  free  play  to  criticism  on  all  its 
great  men,  even  if  it  were  to  go  so  far — which  it  might  do 
only  in  overbold  presumption — as  to  erase  Moses  out  of 
history.  We  might  perhaps  regret  such  work;  but  is  it 
Moses,  is  it  any  one  of  the  succeeding  elaborators,  upon  whom 
the  foundation  of  Judaism  rests?  The  doctrine  exists;  therein 
is  its  belief  and  it  will  continue  its  existence;  the  doctrine 
stands  of  itself  as  it  entered  Judaism,  no  matter  who  taught 
it,  no  matter  who  was  the  historic  individual  that  was  the 
means  of  its  announcement;  no  matter  whether  he  was  free 
from  sin  or  a  man  not  free  from  human  foibles.  Therefore, 
Judaism  has  preserved  its  mission,  its  history  is  not  broken 
by  the  rise  of  Christianity.  It  acknowledges  in  that,  a  great 
world-historic  event  which  deserves  to  be  appreciated  in  its 


Christianity  as  an  Ecclesiastical  World-Power  161 

full  significance  and  hence  the  following  question  must  suggest 
itself  to  a  Jew:  "Why  do  you  not  appreciate  it  in  the  same 
manner  as  a  large  portion  of  the  human  race  do?  Why  do 
you  recognize  in  it  only  a  world-transforming  event,  and  not 
as  the  sole  truth,  the  full,  whole,  unclouded  truth  entered 
into  the  world?"  Having  reached  in  our  view  of  the  course 
of  the  development  of  Judaism  the  time  of  the  rise  of  Chris- 
tianity, we  could  not  avoid  the  task  of  examining  what  that 
tendency  which  was  started  within  Judaism  and  afterwards 
shaped  itself  into  a  world-power,  was  to  us,  and  how  we  explain 
it  and  its  triumphant  march.  It  is  not  my  intention  to 
furnish  a  criticism  of  Christianity,  and  still  much  less  to 
attack  a  faith  that  did  and  still  does  inspire  millions,  or  to 
give  offense  to  devout  hearts.  But  after  all,  it  is  our  duty 
to  state  clearly  how  those  who  do  not  profess  that  belief, 
regard  it  in  its  origin  and  as  a  world-historic  event — and  what 
justifies  us  in  preserving,  alongside  of  it,  our  own  spiritual 
structure  and  even  to  add  thereto.  Whoever  is  not  willing 
to  listen  to  our  defense  may  close  his  ears  and  shut  his  eyes; 
but  he  must  not  bear  us  any  ill-will  for  it,  nor  deny  us  the 
free  expression  of  our  opinion. 

Judaism  had  arrived  at  a  period  which  was  in  the  highest 
degree  fraught  with  danger.  Our  review  left  it  at  a  time  when 
all  destructive  powers  gnawed  at  its  vitals,  when  from  with- 
out, all-powerful  Rome  charged  down  upon  it,  and  within, 
the  parties  were  riotously  burrowing  and  thereby  threatening 
to  undermine  its  best  elements.  And  it  was  under  such  con- 
ditions that  it  commenced  and  continued  the  fight  which  was 
decided  against  it,  or  rather  against  its  national  existence.. 
Such  issue  was  in  the  very  nature  of  things.  The  small  nation 
had  to  succumb  to  Rome;  it  could  not,  for  any  great  length, 
of  time,  withstand  her  superior  power.  Besides,  it  was  not  its 
mission  to  establish  a  nation,  its  nationality  was  but  a  temporal 
hull,  a  necessary  means  for  fortifying  the  belief  and  so  deeply 
rooting  it  in  the  constitution  of  the  individual  members  that 
it  could  continue  to  live  with  full  vitality  even  in  their  dis- 
persion. That  point  having  been  reached,  the  national  form 
might  be  broken.     Of  course,  the  men  living  in  that  period 


162  Judaism  and  Its  History 

did  not  see  it  in  that  light.  They  fought  with  courage  and 
enthusiasm  in  defense  of  their  national  existence.  I  shall 
not  place  before  you  the  sufferings  endured  by  that  little 
band;  I  shall  not  depict  to  you  how  slain  were  heaped  upon 
slain,  how  destruction  progressed  step  by  step,  how  the  men 
closed  up  breaches  in  the  walls  by  their  bodies,  how  enthusiasm 
sustained  the  waning  strength  of  the  weakened  arms;  I  shall 
not  detain  you  with  the  woes  and  lamentations  that  filled 
those  times.  Suffice  it  to  say,  the  Temple  fell,  the  nationality 
was  demolished,  Judah  ceased  from  being  a  nation,  her 
citizens  were  driven  from  their  ancient  soil,  again  led  into 
exile  and  dispersed  all  over  the  globe.  The  hatred  of  the 
victor,  who  was  deeply  mortified  at  having  been  forced  to  a 
test  of  his  fighting  qualities  for  a  long  time  by  such  a  small 
nation,  persecuted  them;  scorn  and  oppression  weighed  them 
down,  especially  when  the  daughter-religion  ascended  the 
throne  of  Rome.  From  that  time  on,  a  tearful  drama  unfolds 
itself  before  our  eyes,  the  most  painful  sufferings  without  and 
within  were  not  wanting ;  for  even  the  minds  and  spirits  were 
oppressed,  and  gloomy  despair  often  took  possession  of  the 
hearts;  and  it  almost  seems  as  if  they  must  have  been  forced 
to  lose  confidence  in  the  truths  which  had  become  part  and 
parcel  of  their  being.  And  yet,  it  is  not  a  tearful  tragedy; 
the  tragic  unfolded  in  the  destiny  of  the  Jews  since  that  time, 
contains  a  grand  idea,  discloses  a  profound  conviction  which 
remains  alive,  and  preserves  a  spiritual  freshness  which  never 
suffers  itself  to  be  bent  down,  an  original  vigor  which  again 
and  again  expands  wherever  room  is  granted  to  it.  The 
history  since  that  time  is  not  a  mere  fatal  tragedy,  it  is  more 
than  may  be  guessed  or  felt  by  romance  which  sees  in  Jewish 
history  but  a  continuous  woe  over  which  to  shed  tears  in  a 
sentimental  mood,  but  over  which  the  staff  must  be  broken 
without  mercy.  No!  the  power  of  resistance  in  Judaism 
knows  not  alone  how  to  suffer,  but  knows  also  how  to  preserve 
and  create  in  the  domain  of  the  spirit.  The  drama  is  not  yet 
concluded^  and  he  only,  who  shall  have  seen  the  last  scene  of 
it,  may  pronounce  a  full  verdict. 


XII. 
In  the  Dispersion. 

The  Jewish  commonwealth  was  destroyed,  dissolved,  the 
Jewish  nationality  disrupted,  the  Temple  was  burnt  down. 
Whether  the  tears  which  Titus  is  said  to  have  shed  at  the 
sight  of  the  devastation,  flowed  from  the  depth  of  his  heart, 
or  whether  they  were  hypocritical — what  does  history  care 
about  it?  What  did  it  matter  to  the  scattered  remnants  of 
the  Jewish  people?  They  had  been  struck  a  severe  blow,  and 
however  long  it  may  have  been  foreseen,  however  well  they 
may  have  been  prepared  for  it,  they  stood  deeply  shaken, 
wounded  and  broken  in  their  innermost  hearts. 

Sadduceeism  was  annihilated.  What  was  now  left  for  the 
priests  and  the  men  of  rank?  The  priests  with  their  minis- 
trations in  the  Temple,  with  the  sacrificial  service,  were 
banished  from  the  sacred  places;  they  were  defiled,  their  traces 
could  hardly  be  seen  any  longer;  what  was  left  for  the  priests? 
Legend  tells  us  that  they  threw  the  keys  of  the  Temple  and 
sacred  cells  toward  heaven,  exclaiming,  "Do  Thou  preserve 
them.  Heavenly  Father;  we  have  no  more  use  for  them." 
And  the  officials  and  men  of  rank,  what  were  they  to  do? 
Not  a  shadow  of  political  rule  was  left;  there  was  no  more 
struggling  for  office  and  distinction,  no  separation  from,  nor 
elevation  above  the  masses;  one  oppression  weighed  upon  all, 
all  glory  was  buried  in  one  grave.  The  Sadducees  vanished 
from  history. 

The  Zealots — the  Kannaim — stood  in  sullen  anger,  in 
brooding  depression;  but  what  avails  anger  in  opposition  to 
superior  power?  For  some  time  they  nursed  plans  of  revenge ; 
guerilla  warfare  continued  to  devastate  Judea;  isolated  forts, 
unimportant  outposts,  were  for  a  time  defended  with  fool- 
hardy bravery — they  too,  fell.  The  fire  which  they  kindled 
served  only  to  consume  them.     Still  two  generations  later, 


164  Judaism  and  Its  History 

an  insurrection  arose,  a  new  Messiah  appeared;  Bar  Kosiba 
placed  himself  at  the  head  of  bold,  daring  men,  and  found 
adherents  and  confidence  among  even  the  considerate  and 
sober-minded.  He  was  a  hero  in  the  full  meaning  of  that 
word,  and  succeeded  with  a  small  band  in  resisting  mighty 
Rome  for  years.  The  war  of  Adrian  assumed  large  dimen- 
sions, but  resulted,  of  course,  in  a  further  destruction  of  the 
weak  remnant  and  an  increase  in  repressive  measures.  The 
Roman,  ordinarily  caring  little  or  nothing  about  the  religion 
of  his  enemy,  felt  too  well  that  he  was  confronted  by  a  mental 
and  spiritual  force  which  offered  him  greater  resistance  than 
the  feeble  bodies  of  its  defenders,  and  his  fury  was  kindled 
against  Judaism  and  its  customs  and  ceremonies.  The 
observance  of  ceremonies  and  ordinances  of  Judaism,  of 
everything  that  externally  designated  the  Jew,  was  punished 
with  death — the  blood  of  martyrs  flowed  in  streams.  It  was 
but  natural  that  renewed  vigor  of  the  faith  should  be  produced 
by  that  blood,  but  the  demolition  of  independence  as  a  nation 
was  sealed  thereby  for  all  time.  The  Zealots  (Kannaim) 
gradually  disappeared,  leaving  but  their  name  behind  them; 
blind  fanatics  who,  misjudging  the  holy  spirit  of  history,  fight 
against  the  power  of  the  times,  and  seek  violently  to  preserve 
the  ancient  conditions,  are  called  "zealots." 

Pharisees  of  the  ancient  strict  observance  still  existed  in 
large  numbers — the  Shammaites  who  had  made  resistance  to 
the  power  of  the  priests  by  covering  themselves  with  the  garb 
of  priestly  law,  who  believed  to  effect  the  sanctification  of 
the  people  and  their  equality  with  the  priesthood  by  adding 
burdensome  usages;  but  they  would  have  gradually  died  out, 
for  they  did  not  possess  the  living  energy  able  to  preserve 
Israel's  holy  treasure  for  centuries.  When  the  Temple  had 
fallen,  their  gloomy  sentiment,  continually  looking  back  to 
ancient  customs  and  institutions,  tried  to  assert  itself;  they 
announced:  It  is  no  longer  permitted  to  eat  meat  or  drink 
wine,  now  that  the  Temple  is  fallen,  because  animals  can  no 
longer  be  sacrificed  in  the  sacred  house,  nor  wine  offered  there 
as  a  drink-offering.  By  such  asceticism,  those  Pharisees  of 
the  strict  school  would  have  caused  the  destruction  of  Judaism. 


In  the  Dispersion  ld6 

But  the  Hillelites  were  still  alive — the  men  who  had 
inherited  the  spirit  of  Hillel,  who  rated  conviction  higher  than 
burdensome  ceremonies,  and  consulted  the  times  more  than 
the  old  ordinances.  It  was  they  who  kept  the  remnants 
together  in  close  connection,  did  not  permit  the  spirit  to 
vanish,  although  the  material  outward  bond  was  broken. 
That  branch  of  Phariseeism  as  it  had  shaped  itself  out  of  the 
very  core  of  Judaism,  breathed  into  it  the  living  spirit  that  it 
was  able  to  enter  upon  its  pilgrimage  through  the  world  at 
large. 

Israel  now  started  upon  his  new  pilgrimage,  full  of  hardships 
and  sufferings.  Thenceforth,  heavy  oppression  was  piled 
upon  him,  almost  down  to  the  present  time.  The  Romans 
could  not  forgive  him  for  having  kept  their  military  forces 
busy  for  such  a  long  time,  for  being  obliged  to  put  forth  their 
whole  strength  to  break  up  that  weak  and  small  nation;  and 
the  triumphal  march  of  the  victors  had  to  be  raised  and  made 
more  brilliant  by  the  contumely  and  chains  which  were  put 
upon  the  vanquished.  Thenceforward  the  Romans  nursed  a 
deep  hatred  against  the  scattered  remnants  of  the  Jews, 
against  the  dispersed  individuals  who  gradually  settled  down 
in  all  parts  of  the  Roman  Domain.  And  when  the  belief  in 
the  fulfilled  Messianic  idea  ascended  the  throne  of  the  Caesars, 
the  heritance  of  that  transmitted  hatred  was  joined  by  another 
factor — the  weapon  of  humiliation  was  added,  plunging  into 
the  very  vitals  and  making  it  a  meritorious  work  to  mortify 
the  spirits,  to  lacerate  the  hearts.  Thus  the  poor  pilgrim 
made  his  progress  through  the  wilderness  of  the  Middle  Ages. 

Is  it  surprising  that  he  turned  his  face  towards  the  past, 
which  appeared  to  him  so  much  the  more  brilliant  the  farther 
it  receded,  that  he  expected  all  happiness  and  glory  from  its 
re-establishment  only,  that  he  imagined  the  future  as  a  copy 
of  all  that  had  been  dead  and  buried  long  ago?  Do  you  marvel 
that  he  journeyed  along,  panting  and  depressed,  that  he  put 
on  a  rough  coat  of  mail  in  order  to  be  protected  against  the 
dagger  and  hostile  touch  from  without;  that  he  added  hull 
upon  hull  to  keep  his  limbs  from  shaking  with  the  cold,  icy 
breath  that  met  him  from  every  speech,  from  every  word? 


166  Judaism  and  Its  History 

Is  it  surprising  that  he  wore  many  a  worthless  amulet  and 
kept  it  in  sight,  to  deck  out  his  joyless  life  and,  while  in  its 
contemplation,  to  indulge  in  pleasant  and  cheerful  dreams? 
Only  tottering  huts  were  permitted  him.  He  might  expect 
to  be  compelled  to-morrow  to  tear  down  the  hovel  which  he 
put  up  to-day,  or  that  it  might  be  torn  down  by  others.  And 
yet,  wherever  he  found  greater  security,  wherever  a  breath  of 
kindness  met  him,  wherever  the  new  phase  of  his  sojourn  gave 
him  an  opportunity  to  till  the  mental  field  and  sow  spiritual 
seed  in  quiet,  that  new  abode  soon  became  to  him  a  new  and 
true  home. 

It  is  an  affecting  sight — but  no!  it  is  more  than  affecting; 
History  is  not  merely  a  sentimental  comedy,  not  merely 
material  for  tearful,  romantic  sentiment  that  it  may  thereby 
for  awhile  feed  its  agony  at  the  world's  disappointment  and 
then  give  itself  the  more  undisturbedly  and  indolently  to 
worldly  pleasures.  It  is  more  than  affecting,  it  is  inspiring, 
to  behold  how  the  Jews,  wherever  they  were  permitted  to 
settle  down  for  a  longer  time,  also  became  deeply  rooted  in 
the  spirit  and  character  of  the  country,  despite  their  love  for 
Palestine,  despite  their  fervent  attachment  to  their  inherited 
customs,  notwithstanding  they  were  full  of  the  spirit  that 
went  forth  from  Jerusalem,  full  of  the  law  that  proceeded  from 
Zion.  Soon  after  the  destruction  of  the  Temple,  they  had 
again  settled  in  numerous  congregations  in  Babylonia.  There 
the  new  Persian  Empire,  the  empire  of  the  Parthians,  existed 
— a  mighty  empire  which  alone  knew  how  to  meet  the  Empire 
of  Rome  with  an  unconquerable  resistance.  We  are  not  suf- 
ficiently informed  of  the  internal  institutions  of  that  empire, 
of  the  mental  and  spiritual  life  that  reigned  there;  at  all  events, 
the  very  fact  that  it  knew  how  to  resist  the  all-coveting 
superior  power  of  Rome  testifies  to  the  independent  energy 
of  the  people.  Numerous  Jewish  congregations  existed  there, 
soon  a  mental  and  spiritual  life  began  to  bloom,  and  soon  also 
their  love  and  attachment  to  their  new  country  became  firmly 
founded.  It  is  a  significant  declaration,  handed  down  from 
a  teacher  of  that  time — viz.,  the  third  century — a  declaration 
which  truly  expresses  the  sentiments  of  the  Jewish  population 


In  the  Dispersion  167 

of  that  time  and  country,  to  wit:  "He  that  emigrates  from 
Babylonia  to  Palestine  violates  God's  command  and  commits 
a  sin."  To  that  extent  they  felt  themselves  affiliated  with 
Babylonia,  with  New- Persia.  Of  course,  that  teacher  founded 
his  decision  on  a  verse  of  the  Bible  which  he  interpreted  and 
explained  according  to  the  manner  of  that  time,  but  the  verse 
had  not  produced  that  sentiment,  it  is  merely  quoted  as  a 
support  for  it;  the  sentiment  arose  out  of  their  love  for  their 
newly  acquired  country.  Fully  consonant  with  that  declara- 
tion is  that  of  another  teacher,  who  decides:  "The  law  of 
the  land  is  religiously  binding;"  in  former  times,  the  law  of 
the  land  (political  and  civil  laws)  had  been  declared  the 
product  of  paganism,  a  work  of  ungodly,  heathenish  nature, 
and  as  such,  not  entitled  to  existence  or  recognition;  and  it 
was  considered  the  worst  stumbling-block.  But  now,  in  a 
new  country  which,  though  it  did  not  afford  full  liberty,  yet 
offered  a  firm  and  safe  place  of  abode,  its  laws  were  regarded 
as  perfectly  correct  and  valid.  Babylonia  was  a  new  home 
for  the  Jews;  and  its  language,  the  Aramaic  or  Chaldean, 
became  almost  a  sacred  language  to  them.  The  Aramaeans 
had  formerly  been  called  idolators,  and  the  name  itself  was 
used  as  equivalent  to  idolator;  the  faith  of  ancient  Aram  had 
been  in  hostile  antagonism  to  Israel,  but  now  the  Jews  lived 
among  them,  enjoyed  a  favorable  and  secure  position,  and 
thus  became  identified  with  the  people  in  their  civil  policy 
and  language.  Even  to  this  day  our  prayers  contain  Aramaic 
portions  and  they  are  regarded  as  sacred,  though  they  are  no 
sounds  of  Zion.  The  Aramaic  version  of  the  bible  is  recog- 
nized as  the  most  authoritative,  partly,  perhaps,  on  account 
of  its  faithful  and  close  adherence  to  traditional  views,  but 
chiefly  because  coming  from  a  country  which  had  become  a 
second  home  to  the  Jews.  The  language  of  Babylonia,  the 
Aramaic,  held  its  own  for  a  long  time,  even  after  Arabian 
literature  had  begun  to  exert  an  influence  upon  Judaism,  and 
the  Arabians  had  supplanted  the  remnants  of  an  older  culture 
by  their  own. 

When  that  young  nation  entered  the  world's  history  with 
its  young  literature  which  for  a  time  exerted  its  fertilizing 


16S  Judaism  and  Its  History 

influence  both  upon  the  progress  of  mankind  in  general  and 
upon  its  higher  development  in  particular;  when  Arabianism, 
growing  up  fast,  ruled  a  large  portion  of  the  human  race,  the 
great  number  of  Jews  who  lived  in  the  Arabian-Islamitic 
territories  soon  identified  themselves  with  those  countries  and 
considered  themselves  members  of  those  nations.  The 
numerous  Jewish  congregations  in  Spain  which  was  also  soon 
brought  under  the  dominion  and  culture  of  the  Moslems, 
especially  show  a  fine  example  of  complete  affiliation  with  the 
inhabitants  of  the  country;  they  revered  the  soil  as  their 
home,  fertilized  it  with  the  sweat  of  their  face,  drew  from  it  by 
their  industry  the  most  variegated  fruits.  Proudly  they 
called  themselves  *' Sephardinif''  exiled  Jews  who  live  in 
Sepharad,  maintaining  that  Sepharad  in  the  bible  meant 
Spain.  With  noble  pride,  they  regarded  their  Spain,  glorified 
it  in  poems,  clung  to  it  with  all  the  fervor  of  their  hearts. 
The  weary  wanderer  had  found  a  new,  beautiful  abiding  place 
and  looked  no  longer  back  toward  the  past,  he  loved  the 
present.  After  they  were  expelled  from  thence,  their  memory 
yet  turned,  and  in  a  measure  is  still  turning  towards  Spain 
and  Portugal. — In  other  countries,  too,  wherever  they  had 
found  a  place  of  abode  for  a  longer  time,  the  Jews  affiliated 
with  the  people  in  heart  and  spirit,  loved  its  language,  adopted 
its  manners  and  diffused  them  farther  and  maintained  the 
speech  even  when  they  were  again  driven  away  by  the  blind 
fury  of  the  inhabitants.  The  German  language  is  heard  from 
the  lips  of  Jews  of  the  most  distant  countries,  they  have  kept 
it  for  centuries  among  themselves;  they  love  the  old  sounds 
that  remind  them  of  a  home  which,  though  irrigated  with 
their  blood  and  never  grown  into  a  lasting,  peaceable  resting 
place,  yet  for  awhile  had  given  them  chance  to  breathe  and 
receive  a  certain  amount  of  culture.  The  wanderer  felt  that 
it  was  his  task  not  to  proceed  on  his  pilgrimage  through  man- 
kind merely  with  fleeting  foot,  but  to  establish  lasting  habita- 
tions, in  order  to  live  with  and  among  men  and  work  for  their 
elevation. 

He  had  guarded  himself  against  intrusion  by  the  world 
without;  he  had  to  walk  about  panting,  filled  only,     as  it 


In  the  Dispersion  169 

seemed,  with  the  care  of  the  day,  his  countenance  furrowed 
by  wrinkles,  his  looks  sad  and  careworn.  But  enter  his  frail 
hut  and  you  find  there: — the  rough  coat  of  mail  is  laid  aside, 
the  hulls  are  taken  ofT,  and  a  life  of  cordiality  flows  from  his 
heart.  He  is  not  chilling,  though  he  be  covered  with  bandages 
and  wraps ;  he  has  no  thorns,  though  it  may  seem  so ;  he  carries 
a  warm  heart  in  his  breast  though  he  be  compelled  to  protect 
himself  against  the  icy  breezes  of  the  outside.  Wherever  he 
finds  genial  warmth,  he  is  also  warm  and  genial,  and  in  the 
family,  in  the  mutual  affection  and  fidelity  encircling  the 
individual  members  thereof,  the  comfort  and  fortitude  of 
Israel  rested  and  persevered.  He  was  excluded  from  the 
outside  world  and  he  protected  himself  against  its  influences 
and  assaults  as  long  as  he  had  reason  to  fear  hostile  approaches ; 
but  whenever  fresh  mental  and  spiritual  life  awoke,  whenever 
a  breath  of  spring,  even  if  often  but  seemingly,  passed  through 
the  world,  when  new  culture  started,  when  the  streams  of 
the  spirit  traversed  the  land  with  their  fertilizing  waters,  there 
he  also  knew  to  eagerly  draw  new  life,  there  he  also  was  in 
close  connection  with  the  spirit  of  the  age. 

In  general,  his  spirit  was  never  bowed  down,  however 
much  depressed  in  his  outward  carriage.  While  in  dark  ages, 
bishops  and  knights  were  given  to  praised  and  sanctified 
ignorance  and  the  art  of  reading  and  writing  remained  some- 
thing foreign  to  them,  that  remnant  of  dispersed  Jews  retained 
an  aspiration  to  mental  and  spiritual  development,  often  one- 
sided and  not  always  keeping  pace  with  life  as  it  was  progress- 
ing, but  still  it  was  a  mental  activity  which  preserved  their 
vitality.  Canonization  of  ignorance  never  held  sway  in  Israel ; 
science  took  a  crooked  route  now  and  then;  their  acuteness 
went  astray  sometimes;  their  mind  decked  itself  out  with 
worthless  tinsel  on  occasions,  but  it  was  always  active. 
Gigantic  works  from  darker  and  brighter  times  stand  before 
us,  productions  of  thought  and  mental  labor,  that  excite  our 
reverence.  I  do  not  endorse  every  word  of  the  Talmud,  nor 
every  idea  of  our  teachers  of  the  Middle  Ages,  but  I  would 
not  cast  away  a  tittle  of  them.  They  contain  an  acumen 
and  power  of  thought  which  command  respect  of  the  spirit 


170  Judaism  and  Its  History 

that  animated  our  ancestors,  an  abundance  of  sound  sense 
and  salutary  maxims — an  originality  of  opinion  often  bursts 
out  which  even  to  this  day  exerts  a  vivifying  and  inspiring 
effect  upon  us. 

A  new  people,  hitherto  untamed  and  wildly  roaming  about, 
entered  upon  the  stage  of  history,  impelled  by  a  lightninglike 
idea  to  a  new  spiritual  development;  in  Arabia,  a  new  civiliza- 
tion is  in  process  of  formation.  At  the  cradle  of  that  new 
culture  also,  Judaism  stood  with  its  doctrines.  Whatever 
good  elements  Islam  contains,  whatever  enduring  idea  appears 
in  it,  it  has  taken  over  from  Judaism.  With  the  battle  cry, 
"There  is  no  God  but  the  one  God  in  Unity!"  the  Arabian 
galloped  through  the  world  on  his  fiery  charger — ^but  his 
battle  cry  was  not  heard  by  him  on  Mount  Sinai,  he  simply 
took  it  over  from  those  who  were  carrying  it  as  their  inher- 
itance through  the  world.  It  is  the  only  fruit-bearing  and 
world-conquering  thought  contained  in  Islam.  Islam  adorned 
that  thought  and  repeated  it  in  many  shallow  and  tautological 
formulas.  It  was  garnished,  and  that  too,  with  Jewish  views 
and  tales.  And  hardly  a  century  after  its  birth,  that  new 
religion  had,  in  a  most  remarkable  way,  conquered  not  only 
a  large  portion  of  the  world  but  tamed  the  conquerors  them- 
selves, and  awakened  them  to  a  new  spiritual  life.  Those 
nations  which  were  then  in  their  early  youth,  which  had  been 
initiated,  raw  and  uncivilized,  into  that  new  religion,  soon 
listened  eagerly  to  the  word  that  was  delivered  to  them  from 
Antiquity  by  the  remnants  of  Hellenism  through  the  channel 
of  the  Syrian  pagans.  The  latter  had  translated  the  writings 
of  the  ancient  Greeks,  of  both  the  philosophers  and  the  men 
of  other  sciences,  into  their  own  idiom,  and  soon  the  Arabians 
took  possession  of  the  remnants  of  Antiquity,  accessible  to 
them  in  that  way;  they  sat  at  the  feet  of  the  ancient  Greek 
teachers  as  industrious  disciples  of  their  doctrines  in  the  form 
transmitted  to  them,  became  civilized  through  the  discipline 
in  the  sciences  and  a  new  culture  flourished,  such  as  can  not 
be  seen  at  any  other  period  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The  Jews 
soon  take  part  in  it;  they  too,  live  right  in  the  midst  of  it; 
they  are  also  philosophers  and  translators  and  feel  the  kinship 


In  the  Dispersion  171 

of  the  aspirations  awakened  in  the  youthful  nation.  They 
too,  are  translators  of  that  new  mental  and  spiritual  upward 
movement,  and  to  a  much  wider  extent.  They  were  not 
confined  to  the  Arabians;  they  did  not  labor  like  the  Arabians, 
only  within  their  own  limits  and  their  own  soil;  they  carry 
those  Greek  works  everywhere,  and  scatter  the  seeds  of  the 
new  culture  far  and  wide.  From  the  Arabic  they  are  trans- 
lated into  Hebrew,  and  from  the  Hebrew  into  the  Latin  and 
the  various  languages  of  Europe;  only  through  that  channel, 
the  works  came  to  be  known  to  Medieval  Europe,  and  they 
were  the  only  mental  and  spiritual  seed  sown  during  that 
time  of  drought.  Jews  are  often  mocked  at  as  business 
brokers,  as  old-clothes  men  peddling  cast-off  clothes  from 
house  to  house;  as  a  matter  of  fact  they  have  carried  the 
cast-off  garments  of  ancient  culture  into  the  habitations  of 
the  nations  of  Europe ;  and  if  these  had  not  clothed  themselves 
with  those  remnants,  they  would  have  remained  naked  indeed. 
But  the  Jews  were  not  only  transmitters  and  middlemen, 
they  exerted  also  great  influence  by  original  production. 
Whatever  knowledge  there  was  during  the  Middle  Ages  of 
botany,  especially  of  the  so-called  officinal  branch  of  botany, 
was  gotten  through  a  translation  of  the  work  of  Dioskorides, 
made  with  the  assistance  and  under  the  direction  of  a  Jew, 
the  physician  and  vizier,  Chasdai  Ben  Isaac  Shaprut.  The 
more  distinguished  philosophers  of  the  Arabian  time,  or  at 
least  a  large  portion  of  them,  were  Jews.  The  name  Avicebron 
resounds  through  many  writings  of  the  Middle  Ages  as  that 
of  one  of  the  most  original  minds.  He  was  a  Jew,  Solomon 
Ben  Gabirol,  or  Gebirol.  His  name  Aben-Gebirol  was 
mutilated  into  Avengebrol,  Avencebron.  He  was  an  original 
thinker,  and  also  a  distinguished  poet — a  mind  upon  whose 
creative  power  I  should  like  to  dwell  longer.  Moses  Ben 
Maimon,  Maimonides,  a  pillar  of  the  faith,  a  mind  productive 
in  all  departments  of  Jewish  science,  was  also  a  thinker  whose 
works  exerted  a  lasting  influence,  not  only  upon  Judaism;  he 
became  a  teacher  for  all  Europe.  Albertus  Magnus  appro- 
priated to  himself  the  best  thoughts,  and  Thomas  Aquinas 
has  borrowed  much  from  him.     Who  could  count  all  the  great 


172  Judaism  and  Its  History 

minds  who  lived  within  the  Arabian  territory,  where  they 
developed  their  mental  activity  and  issued  the  productions 
of  their  poetic  talent?  What  a  glorious  age!  What  testi- 
mony it  bears  to  the  energy  in  Judaism,  which  can  not  be 
broken,  which  develops  itself  in  rich  luxuriance,  if  only  time 
and  space  are  granted  to  it.  When  in  Italy  there  came  a 
revival  of  poetry,  a  sense  of  the  beautiful  rather  than  the 
vigorous  spirit  of  science,  a  Jewish  poet  appeared  by  the  side 
of  Dante,  intimate  friends,  Immanuel,  a  man  full  of  fresh 
humor;  and  we  shall  generally  find  that,  despite  all  oppression, 
the  Jewish  mind  never  became  weak  and  weary.  Mathe- 
matics counts  many  votaries  among  the  Jews;  and  in  the 
medieval  books  of  that  science  we  meet  another  strange 
sounding  name,  "Savasorda,"  who  is  none  other  than  Abraham 
Ben  Chiva,  a  Spanish  Jew  residing  in  the  Provence.  He  had 
the  Arabian  title  Sahib  al  Shorta — i.  e..  Chief  of  Police — given 
to  large  landed  proprietors,  like  lord,  or  prince,  *'Nasi"  as  the 
title  is  in  Hebrew. 

Times  became  brighter  and  everywhere  we  behold  Jews 
participating  with  lively  interest  in  everything  that  quickens 
the  spirit.  In  a  measure,  the  bible  had  to  be  again  discovered 
for  Christendom.  Who  saved  it,  the  Hebrew  bible?  Who 
kept  it  for  fifteen  centuries,  that  it  could  again  reappear  in 
its  original  form?  Canonization  of  ignorance  would  have 
condemned  it  long  ago — it  would  have  been  lost  if  it  had  been 
under  that  protection  only ;  we  might  perhaps  find  a  few  pieces 
of  it  under  an  old  Palimpsest,  under  a  breviary  of  some  monk, 
and  we  should  guess  at  it  as  at  the  Assyrian  cuneiform  in- 
scriptions. It  is  owing  to  the  care  of  the  Jews  that  this  part 
of  the  mental  and  spiritual  achievement  of  Antiquity  has  not 
been  lost — the  product  of  Hebraism,  of  Revelation.  The 
Jews  have  saved  it,  they  have  carried  it  as  their  treasure 
through  the  world,  have  explored  its  hidden  spirit  with  nice 
understanding  and  transferred  their  own  aids  for  instruction 
to  the  world.  Proud  Science,  that  imagines  herself  to-day 
independent  and  able  to  explain  the  bible  in  her  own  way, 
works  with  the  very  aids  furnished  her  by  the  Jews — she 
walks  about  on  crutches  borrowed  from  the  Rabbis.    As  they 


In  the  Dispersion  173 

had  punctuated  and  accentuated  it,  and  in  places  transformed 
it,  Science  has  taken  it  and  works  farther  on.  When  the  time 
of  the  awakening  of  culture  arrived,  the  staff  of  Judaism  was 
looked  to  as  a  supporting  pillar.  Reuchlin,  the  instructor  of 
Germany,  took  hold  of  the  two  pillars  of  the  mental  and 
spiritual  temple,  Hellenism  and  Hebraism,  and  depended  on 
them,  drawing  on  both  for  support.  Holy  ignorance  laid 
snares  for  him  on  that  account,  wanted  to  give  his  works  over 
to  the  ban ;  her  minions  complained  grievously  because  he  was 
not  delivered  into  their  hands.  He  held  the  transmitted 
treasures  of  Judaism  in  great  respect,  perhaps  some  counter- 
feit more  than  it  deserved.  The  critical  works  of  Jews  of 
that  time,  the  works  of  Elias  Levita,  of  Azariah  de  Rossi,  are 
of  great  importance.  As  the  time  progressed,  the  Jews 
advanced  with  it. 

In  that  land  where  a  beautiful  life  had  flourished  for  the 
Jews  for  a  long  time,  in  the  land  which  they  loved  with  holy 
fervor,  blind  fanaticism  was  mightier  than  science.  The  latter 
had  fertilized  the  land  as  long  as  the  Arabians  occupied  it; 
when  they  were  crowded  back,  science  also  fled  from  before 
the  serpent  tongue  of  religious  fury.  The  flame  of  fanaticism 
was  fed  by  ignorance  more  and  more;  it  consumed  the  best 
energies  of  the  land,  and  the  Jews  too,  were  compelled  to  give 
way.  It  was  not  enough  to  oppress  them,  their  very  presence 
was  regarded  as  a  profanation;  they  were  forced  to  leave  a 
country  in  which  they  had  dwelt  with  honor  for  a  thousand 
years,  in  the  welfare  and  glory  of  which  they  had  most 
brilliantly  co-operated.  They  were  forced  to  emigrate.  What- 
ever they  saved  of  mental  and  spiritual  culture,  they  carried 
along  into  Turkey,  where,  however,  they  were  not  able  to 
graft  a  higher  culture  on  the  barren  tree  of  the  Ottomans. 
But  also  to  another  country  which  had  been  tributary  to,  and 
had  made  itself  independent  of  Spain,  to  Holland,  they 
carried,  together  with  their  love  for  their  former  Spanish 
fatherland,  the  remnants  of  culture  and  refinement  of  the 
time.  Holland  set  the  first  example  in  Christendom  of 
announcing  and  proclaiming  the  principle  of  religious  liberty 
in  its  essentials,  at  least,  if  not  fully;  and  Holland  flourished 


174  Judaism  and  Its  History 

for  a  long  time,  in  both  material  prosperity  and  mental  and 
spiritual  superiority,  and  its  Jewish  inhabitants  with  it. 
Right  there  in  Holland  a  Jewish  child  was  born  who,  though 
he  grew  up  a  man  of  feeble  body,  became  the  pioneer  of  a 
new  mental  and  spiritual  era,  and  soon  became  celebrated, 
even  to  this  day.  Baruch  Spinoza  was  a  native  of  Amster- 
dam ;  he  was  the  originator  of  a  new  line  of*  thought  which 
has  since  made  its  entrance  into  the  thinking  world  and  trans- 
formed many  ideas.  He  did  not  remain  a  close  adherent  of 
the  Jewish  doctrine,  yet  he  never  severed  his  connection  with 
it ;  he  matured  under  the  instruction  of  his  old  Jewish  teachers ; 
he  had  zealously  studied  Aben  Esra  and  Maimonides,  and 
rose  on  the  support  of  Judah  Alfakar  and  Chisdai  Kreskas. 
He  contended  against  the  Jewish  adherents  of  Aristotle,  and 
yet  he  had  got  his  education  in  philosophy  through  them. 
He  also  fought  against  the  Cabbala,  though  he  had  received 
many  an  impulse  from  it;  its  doctrine  of  emanation  became 
with  him  his  doctrine  of  immanation.  Baruch  Spinoza  laid 
the  foundation  of  a  new  philosophy  which  has  become  the 
mother  of  many  modern  philosophies.  He  was  a  character 
of  granite,  and  accordingly  his  system  is  of  granite  construc- 
tion. Others  have  chipped  little  stones  from  that  structure 
and  fitted  them  into  various  conglomerate  and  thus  created 
new  systems;  yet  they  originate  in  his  structure.  Has  he 
found  the  truth?  I  can  hardly  assume  it;  but  that  he  has 
become  an  instructor  of  mankind,  that  he  has  freed  it  from 
many  errors  and  prejudices,  has  mightily  stirred  up  the  minds, 
was  the  father  of  a  new  mental  and  spiritual  life  and  the 
creator  of  free  biblical  criticism,  is  an  uncontrovertible  fact. 
The  poor  Jewish  lens-grinder  of  Amsterdam  has  not  passed 
through  the  world  without  leaving  fertile  productions  behind 
him.  Let  us  not  proceed  farther  into  later  times — let  us 
forego  the  mention  of  many  more  recent  brilliant  names; 
those  times  are  yet  too  near  to  us  and  their  contemplation 
might  be  regarded  as  vainglorious  self-admiration. 

But  now  a  new  time  is  taking  shape.  We  have  not  com- 
pletely passed  out  from  the  Middle  Ages,  but  their  pillars 
are  crumbling ;  what  was  their  staff  of  support  formerly,  proves 


In  the  Dispersion  175 

to  be  but  a  splinter  to-day.  As  yet,  no  new  mental  and 
spiritual  idea  with  fertilizing  influence  appears  on  the  horizon 
of  the  world;  as  yet,  no  fresh  breeze  passes  through  the 
withered  leaves  of  mankind.  But  it  is  getting  ready  for  the 
New  Age — sound  science,  live  reason,  honest  inquiry  shall 
investigate  everything  and  clear  up  everything.  Before  sound 
science,  that  science  which,  despairing  of  itself  and  aware  of 
its  weakmindedness,  denies  the  existence  of  the  spirit,  shows 
up  with  triumphant  mien  the  apparatus  of  a  skeleton  and 
thereby  supposes  to  have  given  an  explanation  of  man,  will 
retire  with  shame.  With  a  sound  science  which  respects  the 
spirit  and  has  a  presentiment  of  the  Spirit  of  All,  Judaism  will 
go  hand  in  hand,  because  it  has  always  been  permeated  and 
quickened  by  such  ideas. 

How  then  are  we  prepared  for  that  New  Age?  There  are 
many  overeducated  and  sensual  ones  that  would  willingly 
throw  away  all  ancient  treasures,  bend  their  knees  before  the 
powers  that  be,  and  divest  themselves  of  their  own  character 
and  their  past  as  something  valueless;  they  are  frail  clay 
vessels,  unavailable  as  instruments  for  ushering  in  a  spiritually 
healthy  time.  There  are  also  zealots  among  us,  who,  merely 
looking  back  upon  the  ancient  time,  are  in  love  with  the  shell 
worn  during  the  Middle  Ages  and  will  not  lay  aside  the  rough 
coat  of  mail ;  who  want  to  use  the  dagger  of  suspicion  and  the 
poison  of  calumny  against  every  new  aspiration ;  they  likewise 
are  unavailable  as  instruments  for  ushering  in  a  new  time. 
Neither  are  Pharisees  of  the  strict  observance  lacking;  they 
carefully  wrap  themselves  up,  cling  devoutly  to  all  that  has 
been  handed  down  from  former  times;  they  are  animated  by 
the  ancient  spirit,  but  without  new,  fresh,  quickening  energy. 
But  where  is  the  new  Hillel,  with  his  mild,  clear  eye,  with  his 
loving  enthusiasm,  with  his  sound  mental  and  spiritual  energy 
to  co-operate  in  the  ushering  in  of  the  new  time?  Whenever 
he  shall  appear — and  surely  he  will  not  fail  us — he  will  again 
pronounce,  perhaps  in  another  form,  his  old  maxim:  "//  / 
do  not  for  my  self ^  who  will  do  for  me?  Beloved  pilgrim,  do 
not  continually  look  backwards,"  he  will  say,  "do  not  con- 
tinually keep  your  eyes  on  the  past.    Jerusalem  is  a  tomb; 


176  Judaism  and  Its  History 

you  must  draw  from  the  living  present  and  labor  in  it.  If  we 
do  not  labor  and  produce  from  the  innate  spirit  within  us  as 
it  is  linked  with  the  spirit  of  Revelation,  who  shall  do  it? 
And  if  I  do  for  myself  alone,  what  am  I  then?  If  we  do  not 
identify  ourselves  with  mankind,  we  do  not  do  our  duty. 
Beloved  pilgrim,  cast  off  your  rough  coat  of  mail,  there  is  no 
longer  hostility  abroad;  undo  the  wrappings  that  hide  and 
disfigure  you,  frosty  and  icy  winds  no  longer  blow  against 
you — love  will  blossom  everywhere — you  have  a  warm  heart, 
and  all  mankind  appreciates  it;  take  them  all  in  your  embrace. 
Lo!  the  wrap  is  not  the  spirit,  and  the  rough  coat  of  mail  is 
not  the  essence.  And  if  not  now,  when  then?  If  not  now, 
while  the  spirit  of  Judaism  yet  animates  its  members,  if 
nothing  is  done  now,  if  no  space  is  cleared  whence  the  knowl- 
edge of  ancient  times  may  fertilize  the  world  and  new  seeds 
be  sown  for  the  future;  if  indifference  increases  in  Israel  and 
throws  away  the  old  treasures  as  worthless;  if  the  understand- 
ing of  truly  Jewish  knowledge,  the  illumination  of  the  idea  of 
Revelation,  the  draft  from  that  eternal  fountain  is  not 
encouraged  now — when  then?  Is  it  to  be  done  only  then 
when  everything  shall  be  encoffined,  when  on  the  one  side 
there  will  be  but  dead  bones,  and  on  the  other,  only  ashes?" 
With  such  words  the  new  Hillel  will,  when  he  puts  in  his 
appearance,  encourage  the  pilgrim  to  vigorous  action,  to 
cheerful  co-operation  in  the  spiritual  sowing;  he  will  speak  it 
with  tongue  of  fire,  with  that  conquering  enthusiasm  which 
bears  down  all  caviling  hesitancy.  The  time  will  come, 
Judaism  has  not  yet  finished  its  mission.  Judaism  does  not 
consider  the  world's  history  closed  up,  neither  eighteen  cen- 
turies ago,  nor  to-day;  it  moves  along  with  mankind  on  its 
conquering  march  of  progress,  and  brightens  it  with  mild 
rays. 


Appendix 


Renan  and  Strauss. 

A  Glance  at  the  Latest  Works  on  the  Life  of  Jesus. 

About  thirty  years  ago,  Strauss  accomplished  the  great 
feat  of  writing  a  critical  work  on  the  life  of  Jesus,  and  showed 
that  the  accounts  of  that  time,  as  contradictory  in  themselves 
and  impossible  as  the  records  are  in  conflict  with  one  another, 
contained  no  actual  history,  but  merely  the  legends  which 
were  formed  within  the  circle  of  the  first  Christian  Congrega- 
tion about  the  personality  of  Jesus,  and  that  those  same 
legends  were  the  result  of  the  Messianic  belief,  were  the 
offspring  of  expectations  connected  with  the  coming  Messiah 
or  with  the  events  that  were  related  in  the  bible,  of  the  lives 
of  other  men,  either  by  direct  statement  or  put  into  it  by 
interpretation.  Thus  it  was  very  doubtful  how  much  there 
would  be  left  of  real  history  besides  the  fact  of  the  existence 
of  the  person.  But  Strauss  had  then  just  emerged  from  the 
School  of  Hegel,  which,  in  the  habit  of  converting  historical 
facts  into  a  dialectic  process  from  within,  in  the  habit  of 
regarding  events  of  the  past  as  preparatory  steps  to  later 
finished  ideas,  had  long  before  viewed  the  facts  of  incipient 
Christianity — without,  however,  denying  their  historical 
character — as  the  hulls  of  higher  ideas,  and  had  asserted  that 
those  formerly  veiled  ideas  had  been  brought  to  light  and  made 
perfectly  clear  in  philosophy — the  Hegelian  philosophy,  of 
course.  That  School  called  its  philosophy  the  Absolute. 
Philosophy ;  it  represented  Christianity,  which  it  respected  as 
a  ruling  religious  power,  as  the  chrysalis  of  its  philosophy,  as 
the  popular,  yet  immature  religious  presentation,  preceding 
the  complete,  clear  conception,  and  called  the  Absolute  Reli- 
gion. In  that  manner,  the  Hegelian  School  had  persuaded 
itself  and  others  that  it  was  not  only  in  perfect  accord  with 
the  belief  of  the  church,  but  raised  it  even  to  the  dignity  of 
inviolable,  philosophic  certainty,  it  imprinted  the  stamp  of 
the  highest  mental  and  spiritual  perfection. 


180  Appendix 

Strauss,  with  his  love  of  truth,  and  his  clear,  critical 
acumen,  destroyed  that  cobweb  which  the  Hegelian  had  spun 
around  itself  as  a  saint's  garment;  he  shook  the  whole  founda- 
tion of  the  belief  in  the  definite  historical  person,  and  on  that, 
the  entire  Christian  faith  is  based.  Yet  he  wanted  to  think 
that  in  those  representations  which,  though  without  being 
actual  facts,  had  been  shaped  into  history,  the  philosophical 
ideas  of  his  School  had  found  expression,  even  if  immature, 
and  that  therefore  the  essence  of  Christianity,  now  more 
purely  expressed  in  their  philosophical  ideas,  was  preserved.* 
With  that,  he  not  only  eased  his  mind,  but  he  even  believed 
that  the  Church  could  and  should  be  satisfied  with  what  had 
thus  been  saved.  But  it  very  soon  became  evident  that  the 
Church  was  not  at  all  satisfied  with  seeing  the  One  Person 
whom  she  adored  as  her  highest  ideal,  nay,  even  as  a  super- 
human being,  yield  his  place  to  the  whole  human  race  that 
continually  develops,  struggles,  suffers,  dies,  rises  again, 
ascends  to  heaven  in  a  transfigured  state,  etc.  Although  he 
gallantly  held  his  ground  in  the  fight  that  was  made  against 
him  from  all  sides,  yet  he  thought  there  was  a  possibility  of 
efi'ecting  a  reconciliation  between  the  traditional  faith  of  the 
Church  and  the  glorification  of  the  individual.  In  his  "Leaf 
of  Peace,"  published  a  little  later,  he  announced:  "The  Idea 
manifests  itself  in  the  fullness  of  its  radiations  only  in  the 
whole  community,  yet  it  appears  in  especially  gifted  individ- 
uals with  such  force  that  they  seem  unapproachable,  that  we 
look  up  to  them  as  the  highest  possible  embodiment  of  the 
Idea,  and  yield  to  them  a  Worship  of  Genius.  If  we  behold 
the  art  of  poetry,  of  painting,  manifested  in  the  highest 
possible  perfection  in  certain  persons  who  do  not  arise  as  the 
crown  of  a  long  line  of  development,  but  rather  as  the  first 
ones  with  regard  to  time,  and  whom  other,  later  ones  try  to 
approach,  just  so,  an  individual  may  have  been  a  genius  of 
religious  sentiment  as  author  of  a  religion  worthy  of  adoration 
or  at  least,  emulation." 

*  It  followed  out  of  that  view  that  he  preferred  to  designate  the 
popular  legends,  as  which  he  regarded  the  stories,  rather  as  myths,  because 
the  latter  are  held  to  be  ideas  couched  in  poetic  forms. 


The  Tuebingen  School  181 

With  that,  Strauss  let  the  matter  rest,  and  turned  away 
from  the  subject  for  a  long  time.  Of  course,  such  action  on 
his  part  did  not  set  at  rest  the  commotion  that  had  been 
stirred  up.  Some,  seeing  that  the  very  center  had  been 
unhesitatingly  assailed,  sought  to  defend  the  more  obstinately 
the  fartherest  outposts  which  had  before  been  almost  sur- 
rendered; others  thought  they  could,  by  way  of  compromise, 
the  more  securely  save  that  part  which  to  them  seemed  to  be 
the  more  important  one,  if  they  would  yield  the  apparently 
less  important  and  tenable  branch.  But  soon  results  of 
criticism  were  again  brought  forward,  though  from  a  different 
starting  point.  A  system  came  into  existence  which,  though 
also  the  offspring  of  the  Hegelian  School,  investigated  the 
growth  and  development  of  the  ideas  within  Christianity 
rather  with  a  view  to  the  history  of  the  dogmas  of  the  church ; 
it  is  the  so-called  *' Tuebingen  School."  In  the  course  of  the 
researches  made  for  that  purpose  by  Baur,  its  author  and 
indefatigable  leader,  in  conjunction  with  some  gifted  disciples, 
they  were  compelled  to  investigate  the  events  during  the  first 
centuries  of  Christian  history.  Gradually  they  arrived  at  the 
result,  that  the  manifold  dogmatic  differences  which  dis- 
turbed especially  the  first  periods,  could  not  be  regarded  as 
an  apostacy  from  convictions  previously  settled,  but  pre- 
sented a  process  of  fermentation  out  of  which  Christianity 
only  very  gradually  was  shaped  into  its  subsequent  fixed  form. 
Christianity — such  was  the  result  of  which  they  became  more 
and  more  convinced — is  not  a  new  spiritual  system  produced 
by  one  man  and  arising  suddenly,  but  it  is  the  product  of  a 
mental  and  spiritual  commotion  running  through  two  cen- 
turies, and  it  was  made  up  by  a  number  of  various  factors. 
The  person  who,  until  then,  had  been  adored  as  the  creator 
of  full,  complete,  and  finished  Christianity,  was  divested  of 
that  glory  by  the  result  of  such  researches;  yet  the  honor  of 
having  given  the  impulse  to  that  commotion  was  left  to  him. 
The  investigators  were  also  inclined,  following  the  example 
of  Strauss,  to  admit  that  he  should  be  regarded  as  an  over- 
whelming individuality  on  account  of  the  ability  to  give  such 
a  powerful  impulse,  even  as  a  religious  Genius  who,  in  advance* 


182  Appendix 

with  the  intuitive  grasp  of  genius,  had  already  completely 
apprehended  all  that  the  process  of  development  later  got  into 
shape  by  laborious  toil.  Closely  examined,  the  latter  sup- 
position especially  is  superfluous,  even  contradictory.  To 
what  purpose  should  that  have  existed  in  advance  in  an 
individual  which  the  commotion  of  the  minds  produced  out 
of  the  bitter  and  severe  fight  with  one  another?  But  still 
more!  If  the  Master  had  indeed  arrived  at  that  high  plane 
which  was  attributed  to  complete  and  finished  Christianity, 
how  was  it  possible  that  his  immediate  disciples  who,  in  their 
immediate  intercourse  with  him,  saw  his  actions,  to  whom  he 
gave  uninterruptedly  his  personal  instruction,  who  must  have 
known  the  convictions  held  by  him  down  to  his  death,  to 
whom,  as  his  chosen  apostles  he  disclosed  his  innermost 
thoughts  and  communicated  his  best  aims — how  was  it 
possible  that  they  rendered  his  doctrine,  conceived  in  an 
entirely  different  shape  from  what  it  afterwards  assumed  and 
was  attempted  to  be  ascribed  to  its  author?  But  soon  they 
were  led  to  this  conclusion,  that  during  the  internal  conflict 
in  the  first  centuries,  the  Apostles  proper  had  not  been  the 
standard-bearers  of  the  doctrine  which  worked  its  way  to 
victory,  but  that  theirs  was  gradually  compelled  to  give  way 
to  a  later  tendency,  as  the  representative  of  which  especially 
Paul,  the  Apostle  to  the  heathens,  came  into  view.  And  thus 
the  person  of  Paul  made  its  way  as  the  carrier  of  the  pro- 
gressive movement  of  the  ideas  more  and  more  to  the  fore- 
ground, and  the  first  author  receded  in  proportion.  That  was 
not  announced  very  emphatically  by  that  School — they  were 
satisfied  with  a  so-called  Ideal  Christ;  i.  e.,  with  the  Idea  of  a 
finished  Christianity.  How  much  was  left  of  a  Historical 
Christ  J  they  left  undecided. 

The  clearer  knowledge  of  that  conflict  of  the  ideas  in  the 
first  Christian  time  brightened  the  view  for  critical  investiga- 
tion of  the  Gospels  and  the  other  earliest  writings  of  Chris- 
tianity; it  even  forced  a  more  searching  criticism  of  them. 
Those  oldest  monuments  of  Christianity  in  its  formation  period 
must  be  likewise  speaking  witnesses  of  that  conflict  which 
excited  the  minds  so  mightily,  they  must  show  in  sharp  lines 


Renan  and  Strauss  183 

the  questions  of  those  times,  even  the  number  of  the  records 
— namely,  that  four  gospels  have  been  handed  down — and 
the  diversity  existing  between  their  composers  can  have 
proceeded  only  from  more  or  less  conscious  intent  of  carrying 
the  shades  of  their  own  religious  opinions  into  the  efforts  of 
the  author  of  the  faith.  That  knowledge  has  greatly  pro- 
moted criticism  of  the  Gospels  and  insight  into  the  inner 
process  of  the  development  of  Christianity;  but  at  the  same 
time  it  has  brought  still  greater  uncertainty  upon  what  the 
author  did,  intended,  and  taught.  If  the  records  are  legendary 
and  mythical,  as  Strauss  asserted,  in  that  they  had  intended 
to  see  all  former  expectations  fulfilled  in  the  author  and  thus 
unhistorically  ascribed  to  him  their  actual  fulfilment,  another 
difficulty  was  added,  to  wit,  that  their  own  later  and  more 
recently  formed  shape  was  also  dressed  up  as  act  and  doctrine 
of  Jesus,  and  thus  obscured  his  character  still  more.  Accord- 
ingly, the  Tuebingen  School  has  thus  far  not  attempted  to 
draw  a  full  picture  of  the  Author  of  Christianity;  it  lacked  all 
material  for  it,  because  the  Past  and  the  Future  had  worked 
on  it  to  such  an  extent  that  the  living  character  then  present 
had  become  completely  indiscernible.  Besides,  he  had  been 
reduced  to  a  single  factor  in  the  great  sum  of  Christianity;  to 
know  that  in  its  entirety,  in  the  demonstrable  phases  of  its 
development,  was  of  more  importance  than  to  trace  the  single, 
less  seizable  factor. 

When  now  all  at  once,  and  that  from  the  point  of  view  of 
that  School,  two  new  works  appear,  which  treat  exclusively 
of  "The  Life  of  Jesus,"  it  is  really  a  retrogressive  step.  Of 
course,  less  so  in  the  case  of  the  French  author.  That 
process  of  thought  had  not  yet  been  independently  worked 
out  in  France.  The  first  "  Life  of  Jesus"  by  Strauss  had  been 
translated  into  French,  the  literary  works  of  the  Tuebingen 
School  had  been  known,  considered,  and  discussed  within  a 
certain  circle  of  French  theologians,  but  independent  research 
and  elaboration  had  not  been  attained.  Mr.  Renan,  there- 
fore, was  fully  justified  in  commencing  again,  for  France,  with 
the  life  of  Jesus.  And  yet,  he  has  not  stopped  there.  He 
does  not  desire  that  his  book  should  be  regarded  as  a  whole 


184  Appendix 

work  completed ;  he  publishes  it  as  a  first  volume  of  a  larger 
work  calculated  to  treat  upon  the  development  of  Chris- 
tianity during  the  first  three  centuries,  as  the  beginning  of  a 
full  and  elaborate  disquisition.  The  German  author  stands 
worse  in  this  respect.  He  regards  his  task  fully  accomplished 
by  his  book,  he  means  to  present  "The  Life  of  Jesus"  exclu- 
sively, and  that  too,  after  having  performed  this  task,  thirty 
years  ago,  as  far  as  it  can  be  performed  from  his  standpoint 
— namely,  as  a  critical  opinion  upon  the  records  on  that 
subject — a  task  which  may  be  executed  now  more  correctly 
and  in  better  shape  in  consequence  of  the  new  views  gained, 
but  can  hardly  turn  out  a  new  work  intended  for  the  general 
public.  While  now  the  second  part  of  the  new  work  is  merely 
a  recast  of  his  former  critical  analysis  with  omission  of  a  large 
portion  of  learned  matter,  Strauss  means,  after  all,  to  give  in 
the  first  part  a  positive  presentation  of  the  actual  historical 
facts  regarding  Jesus — ^just  like  Renan,  who,  however,  blends 
both  points.  And  right  there,  the  evil  result  of  a  mode  of 
proceeding  unjustifiable  by  science  appears,  and  again  much 
more  so  in  the  work  of  Strauss  than  in  that  of  Renan.  For 
while  we  must  accord  the  palm  of  superiority  to  the  German 
author  as  far  as  labor  of  criticism  is  concerned,  it  must  be 
admitted  that  his  historical  presentation — even  aside  from  the 
historical  art  which,  with  Renan,  is  working  more  in  a  more 
poetic,  divinatory  manner  than  in  elaborating  the  material  on 
hand — is  far  more  untenable,  much  less  permeated  by  a 
historic  spirit  than  that  of  the  French  scholar.  The  latter 
has  this  advantage,  that  he  intermingles  criticism  with  his 
narrative,  that  he  introduces  many  more  portions  of  the 
records — often  in  a  very  uncritical  and  arbitrary  manner — as 
genuine  history  and  has  thus  far  more  material  left  him. 
Finally  he  sees  in  Jesus  a  man  wrestling  and  struggling  within 
himself,  soaring  and  falling  back  until  death  relieves  him  at 
the  right  time,  before  he  might  turn  faithless  to  his  mission. 
In  contrast  to  that,  Strauss  at  first  presents  us  a  history,  and 
only  afterwards  proves  the  unreliability  of  the  records,  so  that 
when  we  have  come  to  the  close  of  his  book,  we  look  about 
with  uncertainty  for  the  remainder,   of  which   the  actual 


Renan  and  Strauss  185 

history  must  once  have  consisted;  of  a  growth,  of  a  develop- 
ment within  the  person  of  Jesus,  which  is  the  real  object  of 
biography,  we  learn  nothing  at  all,  for  he  presents  his  man 
finished  and  complete  from  the  start. 

But  how  does  this  man  appear  in  both  works?  There  is 
the  rock  against  which  the  feeble  bark  of  either  was  wrecked 
as  soon  as  it  ventured  to  pass  from  the  waters  of  historical 
criticism  into  those  of  biography.  Every  attempt  at  biogra- 
phy is  attended  with  danger.  As  soon  as  an  individual  is 
taken  up  as  a  fixed  point  in  the  moving  fluid  stream  of  history, 
he  has  been  given  a  higher  importance,  and  the  temptation 
grows  stronger  and  stronger  to  justify  in  the  presentation, 
why  such  importance  is  given  him ;  compelled  to  group  around 
him  the  facts  connected  with  him,  the  writer  easily  falls  into 
the  mistake  of  deducing  them  from  him,  and  thus  he  becomes 
the  center  and  representative  of  the  history  of  which  he  was 
but  a  single  part  by  the  side  of  many  others.  The  interest 
which  an  earnest  author  takes  in  the  subject  of  his  treatise, 
passes  over  to  the  appreciation  of  the  person;  he  is  led  astray 
into  overrating  him,  in  emphasizing,  more  than  unbiased 
judgment  could  permit,  his  bright  sides,  into  paling  the  dark 
spots,  in  excusing  the  foibles;  in  short,  the  biographer  easily 
turns  into  the  advocate,  into  the  eulogist.  Such  being  the 
danger  attending  every  biographical  work,  how  much  greater 
must  it  be  when  its  subject  is  a  person  who  is  closely  connected 
with  one  of  the  grandest  events  in  the  world's  history,  who  has 
hitherto  been  regarded  not  merely  as  one  of  its  impelling 
or  co-operating  factors,  but  as  its  complete  and  sole  creator. 
However  critically  unbiased  the  writer  may  be,  as  soon  as  he 
disengages  such  an  agent  from  all  other  factors,  he  slips  into 
ascribing  to  him  more  than  he  would  in  a  work  comprising  a 
history  of  all  co-operating  causes — he  would  not  like  to  go  too 
far  out  of  the  beaten  track,  he  would  not  want  to  make  the 
transition  from  the  customary  conception  to  his  own,  too 
steeply  precipitous.  And  when  criticism  proves  that  very 
little  of  all  that  the  ancient  records  contain  can  be  relied 
upon,  then  the  writer  is  left  to  himself,  to  his  own  combina- 
tion, to  the  picture  moving  before  his  imagination,  and  in  that 


186  Appendix 

light  he  will  represent  his  hero.     But  critical  truth  suffers 
shipwreck  thereby. 

And  such  has  been  the  case  with  both  authors,  with  each 
in  his  own  way.  In  the  work  of  Renan,  Jesus  appears  as  a 
visionary  hypocrite,  greatly  vascillating:  now  as  a  pronounced 
national  Jew,  and  then  again  as  a  cosmopolitan;  now  as 
initiated  by  John  the  Baptist  into  ascetics,  then  rising  above 
all  outward  forms;  now  as  overcoming  all  obstacles  by  the 
most  amiable  meekness  and  then  again  in  great  wrath  at  the 
lack  of  results  of  his  labors  and  losing  heart,  and  withal,  devoid 
of  all  means  and  efforts  towards  higher  culture  of  mind  and 
spirit; — and  towards  the  end,  after  we  are  shown  some  very 
suspicious  preparations  for  deceptive  miracles,  some  very  low 
morality  which  our  author  defends  with  oratorical  pathos  and 
and  even  praises,  because  he  thinks  it  to  belong  to  a  creative, 
idealistic  time  which  should  not  be  measured  by  our  own  short 
standard,  we  finally  come  to  a  glorification  of  Jesus  who  is  to 
be  the  pattern  of  highest  religious  and  moral  perfection  for  all 
times,  an  ideal  which  has  as  yet  not  been  sufficiently  under- 
stood and  much  less  reached.  Though  he  should  not  be 
worshiped  as  a  God,  yet  he  must  be  looked  up  to  as  an  Ideal 
of  Mankind,  as  a  "Demigod."  Thus  the  epos  closes  in  a 
dignified  manner  with  a  surprising  flash.  But  when  we  shut 
the  book,  calmly  weigh  its  contents  in  our  mind  and  render 
its  poetry  into  sober  prose,  we  find  the  hero  has  been  dissolved 
into  vapor  during  the  course  of  that  chemical  process  of 
thought.  The  demands  made  upon  us  by  the  historian  prove 
to  be  wholly  illegitimate. 

Nor  do  we  fare  better  with  Strauss.  He  saves  us  from  all 
flight  of  the  imagination,  from  all  suspense  and  tension  that 
might  be  caused  by  contemplation  of  a  wrestling  mind ;  in  his 
presentation,  Jesus  appears  from  the  very  beginning  in 
unchangeable,  unapproachable  tranquility,  in  lofty  dignity. 
Even  in  the  preface  (p.  xviii.)  he  is  announced  as  "the  indi- 
vidual in  whom  the  deeper  consciousness  of  man's  inner  nature 
first  appeared  as  an  all-pervading  force,  determining  his  entire 
life  and  being,"  and  again  at  the  conclusion  of  the  book  (p. 
625),  we  are  assured  that  "among  the  promoters  of  the  ideal 


Renan  and  Strauss  on  Jesus  187 

of  humanity,  Jesus  stands  at  all  events  in  the  front  rank. 
He  introduced  features  into  it  which  were  wanting  in  it  before, 
or  had  remained  undeveloped;  he  reduced  others  which 
prevented  its  universal  application;  he  imparted  to  it  by  the 
religious  aspect  he  gave  to  it  a  more  lofty  consecration  and 
bestowed  upon  it  the  most  vital  warmth  by  its  embodiment 
in  his  own  person,  while  the  Religious  Society  which  took  its 
start  from  him,  provided  for  this  ideal  the  widest  acceptance 
among  mankind."  But  when  we  ask  for  the  facts  underlying 
that  picture,  we  are  refused  an  answer  by  Strauss  regarding 
actual  facts,  because  he  does  not  recognize  the  reported  actions 
as  historical  and  true;  and  if  those  reported  acts  were  recog- 
nized as  actual  facts,  they  would  in  a  great  measure  contradict 
his  views  and  could  find  their  explanation  only  in  a  relapse 
by  the  immediately  succeeding  age,  which  we  shall  consider 
farther  on.  Now  then,  actual  facts  do  not  furnish  the  basis 
for  such  a  description  of  the  character  of  Jesus ;  but  instructions 
and  maxims  do.  But  many  of  those  have  to  be  deducted  from 
the  sum  of  that  character,  because  they  originated  at  a  later 
time.  Others  are  decided  to  be  genuine  and  thus  ought  to 
afford  the  best  testimony  for  that  lofty  individuality.  Strauss 
selects  (p.  253)  some  of  "that  rich  collection  of  sentences  or 
maxims  as  they  are  found  in  the  gospels,  of  those  pregnant 
sayings  which,  even  independent  of  their  religious  value,  are 
so  inestimable  for  the  clear  penetration,  the  unerring  sense 
of  right  expressed  in  them.'* 

Let  us  consider  these  pregnant  sayings  which  by  themselves 
alone  are  to  furnish  the  justification  for  the  claim  to  that 
proud  unapproachable  character.  "Give  unto  Caesar  that 
which  is  Caesar's,  and  unto  God  that  which  is  God's."  If 
that  saying  is  taken  in  that  sense  which  a  later  application 
attributed  to  it,  namely,  that  the  domains  of  the  religious 
and  civil  bonds  of  Church  and  State,  should  be  separated, 
and  that  each  should  be  recognized  on  its  own  soil  and  accord- 
ing to  its  title,  then  we  rejoice  at  the  tangible  expression  in 
which  the  idea  is  given.  But  right  there,  another  opinion  of 
Strauss  gives  us  pause  and  doubt.  Considering  his  admission 
(p.  626)  that  "in  the  pattern  exhibited  by  Jesus  in  his  instruc- 


188  Appendix 

tion  and  life,  some  sides  being  shaped  and  worked  out  to 
perfection,  while  other  sides  were  but  faintly  sketched  or  not 
indicated  at  all,"  and  that  in  elaborating  that  idea,  he  con- 
tinues, "his  relation  to  the  body  politic  appears  simply 
passive,"  we  soon  conclude  that  in  the  first  part  of  the  cited 
saying  the  sensible  idea  of  the  rights  of  the  State  can  not  be 
contained,  that  Jesus  did  not  recognize  the  State,  but  merely 
tolerated  it.  But  that  the  meaning  of  that  saying  is  altogether 
different  from  that  put  into  it,  after  it  was  elevated  into  a 
maxim  under  changed  conditions  and  altered  views,  is  proven 
by  its  shape  and  the  occasion  that  called  it  forth.  According 
to  the  meaning  now  generally  adopted,  it  should  demand  that 
to  Caesar  should  be  given  what  is  due  him,  but  not  "that 
which  is  Caesar's"  already,  that  which  already  fully  belongs 
to  him — for  that  is  self-understood  as  a  matter  of  course. 
But  Jesus  employed  the  saying  for  a  reply  to  the  question  of 
the  Pharisees,  whether  they  should  pay  tribute  to  the  emperor, 
to  Rome,  and  only  after  he  had  made  them  show  him  a  coin 
which  bore  the  emperor's  picture.  The  Pharisees,  being  the 
party  of  compromise,  did  not  refuse  to  pay  tribute;  with  all 
their  attachment  to  their  faith  and  country,  hence  with  all 
their  readiness  to  give  unto  God  all  that  they  could  dispose 
of  as  a  gift  to  God,  it  was  their  principle  not  to  rebel  reck- 
lessly against  the  authority  of  the  Emperor,  but  rather  to 
give  to  him  that  which  under  existing  conditions  he  could 
justly  claim.  But  the  Kannainiy  the  Zealots,  rejected  such 
pliant  weakness,  condemned  the  payment  of  tribute  or  taxes 
to  Rome  as  an  apostacy  from  faith  and  country.  The 
Pharisees  and  Herodians — as  they  are  called  in  Matthew  and 
Mark,  i.  e.,  the  Boethusians,  the  priestly  families  and  their 
adherents — ^who  regarded  the  announcement  by  Jesus  that  he 
was  the  Messiah  both  as  a  religious  presumption  and  as  an 
implied  dangerous  political  agitation,  very  naturally  supposed 
that  he  would,  like  the  Zealots,  repudiate  the  payment  of 
tribute  to  Rome;  and  that  would  have  afforded  them  a  cause 
for  delivering  him  as  a  rebel  over  to  the  Roman  authorities 
for  punishment.  Jesus  cunningly  foiled  the  attempt,  without 
turning  from  his  principles.    The  coin  bearing  the  image  and 


Sayings  of  Jesus  189 

inscription  of  the  Emperor  showed  that  everything  still  moved 
within  the  condition  of  this  world  which,  after  all,  "was" 
Rome's,  *'was''  Caesar's — not  "ought  to  be  his" — the  reply 
meant,  give  unto  him  that  which  he  has  already,  until  the 
world-to-come  appears,  when  all  things  will  be  God's,  and  you 
will  then  pay  all  tribute  to  Him.  Judging  from  his  point  of 
view,  the  reply  may  have  been  appropriate,  even  wise,  but 
it  can  not  claim  authority  for  all  times,  it  reveals  no  insight 
into  the  nature  of  the  State,  hence  "peculiar,  clear  penetra- 
tion, the  unerring  sense  of  right"  is  not  expressed  in  it. 

As  a  second  example,  the  author  quotes  the  saying,  *'No 
man  putteth  a  new  patch  unto  an  old  garment;  neither  do 
men  put  new  wine  into  old  bottles."  What  the  sentence  is 
intended  to  express  is  well  known;  but  I  have  great  doubts 
about  its  fitness  and  the  general  application.  About  a  new 
patch  upon  an  old  garment,  the  figure  is  extremely  puzzling. 
An  old  patch  is  undoubtedly  less  suitable  for  an  old,  torn 
garment  than  a  new  patch ;  for  if  a  garment  be  still  usable  and 
have  but  a  rent,  one  will  certainly  take  a  new  patch  for 
mending  the  damage  and  preserving  the  whole  garment  for 
some  time  yet.  If,  therefore,  Matthew  (ix.  16)  and  Mark 
(ii.  21)  add:  "for  that  which  is  put  in  to  fill  up,  taketh  from 
the  garment  and  the  rent  is  made  worse,"  they  commit,  as 
far  as  I  understand  such  matters,  a  direct  error.  Luke  seems 
to  have  felt  that,  for  he  changes  the  metaphor  somewhat  by 
quoting  the  saying  (v.  36)  in  this  manner:  "  No  man  putteth 
a  piece  of  a  new  garment  upon  an  old ;  if  otherwise,  then  both 
the  new  maketh  a  rent,  and  the  piece  that  was  then  taken 
out  of  the  new,  agreeth  not  with  the  old."  But  by  that  turn, 
the  truth  to  be  embodied  by  the  parable  is  entirely  changed, 
and  it  evidently  does  not  correspond  to  its  original  object. 
According  to  Matthew  and  Mark,  Jesus,  following  up  the 
observation  that  the  disciples  of  the  Baptist  and  the  Pharisees, 
but  not  his,  might  fast,  means  to  say,  that  it  is  of  no  avail  to 
patch  an  old,  torn  system  of  religious  views  with  a  few  new 
ideas;  that  it  must  be  formed  anew  from  its  very  foundation 
— that  meaning  fits  the  saying,  but  it  can  not  be  applied  to  a 
garment.     Now,  while  Luke  intends  to  improve  the  parable, 


190  Appendix 

he  destroys  the  meaning  intended  to  be  conveyed  by  it.  For 
according  to  him,  the  system  of  new  views  must  have  been 
completely  established  and  carried  into  practice,  to  have  a 
piece  taken  from  it  and  tear  it,  while  the  new  patch  would 
not  agree  \^ith  the  old.  That  does  not  correspond  to  the  idea 
intended  to  be  conveyed.  At  all  events,  the  older  form  of 
the  saying  is  such  as  is  found  in  Matthew  and  Mark,  and  as 
Strauss  has  transcribed  it  from  them;  but  in  that  form,  the 
metaphor,  being  little  to  the  point,  seems  to  have  roused 
already  the  suspicion  of  Luke.  The  same  can  be  said  of  the 
second  part.  That  new  wine,  being  in  process  of  fermenta- 
tion, may  easily  break  the  bottles,  is  correct;  but  that  old 
bottles,  if  they  are  at  all  fit  for  preserving  liquids,  are  more 
liable  to  burst  than  new  ones,  I  am  inclined  to  doubt.  Even 
the  new  ones  are  more  apt  to  burst,  on  account  of  their  untried 
tension,  as  expressed  also  by  the  author  of  Job  (xxxii.  19),  to 
which  verse  only  forced  interpretation  could  attribute  the 
meaning  from  the  passage  in  the  Gospels.  Thus  then,  the 
form  of  the  saying  with  its  simile  is  badly  selected.  But  is 
the  idea  to  be  conveyed  by  it,  to  be  adopted  without  any 
limitation?  The  saying,  if  accepted  as  of  general  application, 
is  in  conflict  with  all  historical  development,  the  law  of  which 
consists  even  in  gradual  transformation,  in  the  interpenetra- 
tion  of  the  old  elements  by  the  new  ones.  It  has  an  intelligent 
meaning  only — and  that,  too,  in  a  Paulinian  sense — for  the 
commotion  of  that  time  which  was  opposed  to  Judaizing 
Christianity,  as  being  a  mingling  of  ancient  custom  with  the 
new  Messianism.  Now  if  it  alludes  to  that  condition — and 
in  this  sense  it  is  still  farther  elaborated  by  Luke,  who  had 
the  new  system  completely  finished  before  him — it  can  not 
be  ascribed  to  Jesus  at  all  but  belongs  to  the  later  time  when 
the  internal  struggle  was  well  under  way.  And  in  fact,  the 
saying  is  very  loosely,  even  contradictorily  attached  to  the 
preceding  reply.  If  the  disciples  of  Jesus,  as  is  stated  in  the 
preceding  passages  under  consideration,  do  not  then  fast, 
because  the  bridegroom  is  with  them,  but  would  make  up 
for  it  after  the  latter  shall  have  been  taken  from  them,  the 
saying  does  not  at  all  contend  against  ancient  custom,  but 


The  Development  191 

designates  it  as  untimely  only  for  the  moment,  again  to 
become  appropriate  at  a  future  period.  But  the  added 
phrases  occupy  a  different  standpoint,  that  of  a  later  period, 
which  insists  on  having  abolished  all  ancient  custom  for  all 
time  to  come. 

Both  the  expression  and  the  idea  of  the  saying,  *'If  thy 
hand  or  thy  foot  offend  thee,  cut  it  off  and  cast  it  from  thee," 
are  of  very  doubtful  value.  The  other,  "Take  first  the  beam 
out  of  thine  own  eye;  and  then  shalt  thou  see  clearly  to  cast 
out  the  mote  out  of  thy  brother's  eye,'*  was,  as  is  evident 
from  the  Talmud,  an  adage  in  general  use  at  the  time.  The 
other  two  sentences,  *'They  that  be  whole  need  not  a  physi- 
cian, but  they  that  are  sick,"  and  *'Not  seven  times  shalt 
thou  forgive  thy  brother  who  offends  thee,  but  seventy  times 
seven,"  are  of  very  ordinary  kind.  If  Strauss  adds  with 
emphasis,  "These  are  imperishable  words;  for  in  them,  truths 
that  are  every  day  getting  fresh  corroboration  are  enclosed 
in  a  form  that  exactly  suits  them  and  is  at  the  same  time 
universally  intelligible,"  the  otherwise  unbiased  thinker  can 
have  been  blinded  only  by  the  frequent  application  that  has 
been  made  of  them  during  the  course  of  centuries,  and  this 
too,  with  a  partial  sublimation  of  their  original  meaning.  In 
comparison  with  the  great  treasure  of  pithy  sentences  and 
proverbs,  the  single  pearls  of  which  are  scattered  about  in  the 
Talmudic  literature,  one  is  tempted  to  say,  with  the  lavish 
carelessness  of  a  millionaire,  the  sentences  quoted  deserve 
very  small  consideration. 

But  Strauss  is  determined,  at  all  hazards,  to  see  in  the 
subject  of  his  book,  the  embodiment  of  the  human  ideal,  even 
if  he  should  be  forced  to  assume  that  history  had  taken  a 
retrogressive  in  place  of  an  advance  movement.  When  we 
read  expressions  such  as  (p.  140),  "Luke  and  Mark  un- 
doubtedly did  right  when  they  omitted  from  the  instruc- 
tions to  the  twelve,  the  command  not  to  turn  to  the  Gentiles 
and  Samaritans,  as  that  prohibition  in  the  account  of  the  first 
gospel  had  probably  got  into  it  only  from  the  ideas  of  rigid 
Judaizing  Christians,"  when  we  read  soon  thereafter,  "If  we 
accept    ,     .     .    that  the  first  disciples  of  Jesus  did  not  fully 


192  Appendix 

comprehend  him,  that  the  standpoint  of  the  first  congrega- 
tion remained  behind  his  own,  and  that  our  oldest  Evangelists, 
especially  Matthew,  were  also  on  the  standpoint  of  the  oldest 
congregation  .  .  .  and  if  we  put  up  the  saying  in 
Matthew,  about  the  indestructibility  of  even  the  smallest 
letter  of  the  Law,  and  that  in  John  about  the  worship  of  God 
in  spirit  and  in  truth,  as  the  two  most  extreme  points,  it  is 
very  doubtful  to  which  of  those  two  points  we  are  to  think 
the  historical  Jesus  to  have  been  the  nearest";  or  when  he 
says  (p.  318)  of  "the  phantastic  mood  of  the  most  ancient 
congregations,  that  it  had  been  in  many  respects  a  simultane- 
ous relapse  into  the  views  of  Jewish  times";  or  when  (p.  616), 
the  fact  that  Mark  "names  as  the  signs  which  are  to  charac- 
terize believers,  the  power  to  cast  out  devils,  to  speak  with 
new  tongues,  to  lift  up  snakes,  to  drink  deadly  poison  without 
harm,  to  heal  the  sick  by  laying  on  of  hands"  is  to  show  "at 
how  early  a  period  in  the  Church,  a  superstitious  feeling 
directed  only  to  signs  and  wonders  began  to  smother  the 
genuine  spirit  of  Jesus" — when  we  read  those  and  similar 
expressions,  we  no  longer  recognize  in  them  an  unbiased 
historical  mind  and  spirit,  but  the  violent  assertions  of  the 
Apologist. 

Many  of  the  passages  quoted  above,  show  that  Strauss 
approaches  those  assertions  with  rather  unsteady  and  hesi- 
tating step,  yet  he  rushed  unhesitatingly  into  them  in  other 
places.  His  critical  conscience  must  necessarily  have  troubled 
him  then.  For  such  assumptions  rob  all  settled  historical 
results  accomplished  by  modern  research,  of  their  true  value. 
If  it  is  true  that  Christianity  was  evolved  only  from  the 
struggle  between  an  older  tendency  and  the  later  Paulinian 
view,  it  is  impossible  that  the  later,  more  finished  form  had 
been  already  known,  and  had  been  taught  in  its  complete 
state,  and  even  in  a  higher  form,  by  the  original  starter.  It 
is  impossible  that  all  his  immediate  disciples  and  all  the 
churches  established  by  them,  should  not  only  completely 
have  misunderstood  the  intentions  of  their  Master,  should 
have  totally  renounced  his  doctrines,  but  that  they  even  con- 
tended against  his  views  and  purposes  with  the  most  deter- 


The  Development  193 

mined  and  violent  opposition,  as  soon  as  they  were  presented 
to  them  in  mere  tentative  form  by  Paul,  who  had  not  known 
Jesus,  nor  even  heard  anything  from  him  directly,  and  that 
those  views  gained  the  ascendency  only  by  the  pressure  of 
events.  And  even  Paul  is  made  out  to  have  only  approached 
them ;  for  the  author  is  represented  as  having  possessed  a  far 
loftier  conception  than  that  which  Paul  deduced  by  scholastic 
dialectics,  and  thus  his  real  spirit  has  remained  unknown  to 
this  day.  Whenever  a  writer  enunciates  new  views,  they  may 
be  ignored  for  a  time  or  be  bent  to  the  prevailing  opinions 
and  perceived  more  clearly  by  a  later  generation  only.  But 
when  a  teacher — who  in  personal  intercourse  and  by  oral 
instruction  unhesitatingly  and  with  the  greatest  emphasis, 
pronounces  his  convictions  which  are  diametrically  opposed 
to  the  prevailing  views  and  "in  a  form  that  exactly  fits  them 
and  is  at  the  same  time  universally  intelligible'' — gives  his 
ideas  the  most  definite  expression  in  all  his  actions,  accepts 
the  contest  with  the  ruling  powers  for  them,  and  dies  for 
them,  can  he  have  been  so  totally  misunderstood  by  the  men 
who  were  unceasingly  with  him,  who  were  prepared  by  him 
as  his  missionaries  and  devoted  themselves  to  that  mission 
with  the  greatest  self-sacrifice,  and  also  by  the  crowds  and 
congregations  that  gathered  around  those  men — can  he  by 
all  of  them,  and  how-ever  weak  their  mental  powers  may  have 
been,  have  been  so  totally  misunderstood  that  they  repudiated 
all  his  doctrines  without  exception  while  other  points  which 
be  peremptorily  rejected  or,  at  least,  did  not  emphasize  and, 
at  best,  only  tolerated,  were  made  by  them  the  core  and 
center  of  the  new  system?  It  is  claimed  that  Jesus  breaks 
down  the  national  barriers  between  Jews  and  non-Jews;  his 
disciples  adhere  to  them  with  determination,  call  "Heathens 
and  Samaritans'*  outcasts,  contend  against  the  adherents  of 
Paul  who  accepts  such,  as  apostates,  as  "  Balaamites. "  It 
is  claimed  that  Jesus  abolishes  the  validity  of  the  Jewish  law 
and  ceremonies;  his  disciples  emphatically  enforce  them, 
assert  their  everlasting  validity,  say  that  "it  is  easier  for 
heaven  and  earth  to  pass  away  than  one  tittle  of  the  law  to 
fail,"  are  indignant  at  the  later  attempted  assault  upon  those 


194  Appendix 

institutions.  It  is  claimed  that  Jesus  repudiates  signs  and 
wonders;  his  adherents  cite  them  again  and  again,  and  on 
that  point  the  greatest  unanimity  has  existed  to  this  day. 
On  the  other  hand,  there  is  the  conviction,  which  comprises 
everything  immediately  succeeding  Jesus  and  held  by  all  as 
an  unshaken  faith,  namely:  that  Jesus  was  the  Messiah, 
commissioned  as  such  to  bring  about  a  new  epoch  for  the 
world,  and  that  he,  though  he  died,  had  soon  risen  again  and 
would  return  with  the  greatest  power  in  a  short  time,  in  order 
to  establish  the  new  epoch  with  a  general,  rigorous  judgment 
of  the  whole  world.  What  is  the  relation  of  the  new  apolo- 
getic, or  the  relation  of  Jesus  as  represented  by  it,  to  that 
faith?  Strauss  devotes  a  separate  chapter  (C.  39)  to  that 
subject,  and  we  must  here  transcribe  his  own  words,  omitting 
only  unessential  parts.     He  says  (p.  236,  etc.): 

**  Jesus  speaks  in  the  Gospels  ...  of  the  coming  of 
the  Son  of  Man;  i.  e.,  of  his  own  Messianic  second  coming 
at  a  later,  though  not  distant  period  when  he  will  appear  in 
the  clouds  of  heaven,  in  divine  glory  and  accompanied  by 
angels,  to  wake  the  dead,  to  judge  the  quick  and  the  dead, 
and  to  begin  his  kingdom,  the  kingdom  of  God,  or  of  Heaven. 

.  .  .  To  this  part  of  the  doctrine  of  Jesus  in  the  most 
literal  conception,  the  older  Church  held  fast;  it  is  even  built 
on  that  foundation  because  without  the  expectation  of  the 
early  return  of  Christ,  no  Christian  Church  could  have  been 
established  at  all.  ...  To  a  human  being,  no  such  thing 
as  he  here  prophesied  of  himself  could  happen.  If  he  did 
prophesy  it  of  himself,  and  expected  it  himself,  he  is  for  us 
nothing  but  an  enthusiast;  as  he  would  be  a  braggart  and  an 
impostor  if  he  had  said  it  of  himself  without  any  faith  in  it 
on  his  own  part.  .  .  We  find  the  speeches  of  Jesus  about  his 
second  coming  in  all  four  gospels;  we  certainly  find  them  in 
the  first  three,  which  we  a-cknowledge  as  the  repository  of 
much  genuine  historical  tradition,  at  greater  length  and  more 
definite  than  in  the  fourth.     What  then,  is  here  to  be  done? 

.  .  .  Shall  we  make  him  bear  the  burden  of  all  those 
speeches  in  the  full  literal  meaning  of  the  words  and  therefore 
be  compelled  to  confess  that  he  was  an  enthusiast,  and  not 


The  Second  Coming  of  the  Messiah  195 

of  a  small  degree  at  that?  .  .  .  With  our  Christian  habits 
of  thought,  it  might  be  a  very  bitter  pill  for  us;  but  if  it 
turned  out  to  be  a  historical  result,  our  habits  of  thought 
would  have  to  give  way.  Nor  can  it  be  said  that  an  enthusiast 
could  not  have  had  the  sound,  lofty  views,  the  historic  effects 
that  proceeded  from  him.  .  .  .  It  is  no  unusual  phenom- 
enon to  see  high  mental  and  spiritual  gifts  and  excellency  of 
sentiment  tempered  with  a  dose  of  exaggerated  enthusiasm. 

.  .  .  That  Jesus,  according  to  the  Evangelical  accounts, 
should  have  considered  his  second  advent  so  near  that  he 
said  to  his  disciples  that  there  were  some  among  those  stand- 
ing around  him  who  should  not  taste  of  death  until  they  had 
seen  the  Son  of  Man  coming  in  his  kingdom  .  .  .  that 
therefore  he  should  have  made  a  great  mistake  with  reference 
to  the  time  ...  all  that,  on  our  standpoint,  does  not 
make  the  case  even  worse.  ...  So  much  the  less  can 
we  feel  ourselves  tempted  to  one  of  the  violent  interpretations 
of  the  words  which  the  theologians,  in  genuine  rivalry,  have 
here  undertaken.     .    Also  by  the  coming  of  Jesus  himself 

.  .  .  we  can  not,  if  his  words  are  faithfully  reported  to 
us,  understand  an  invisible  and  gradual  development,  i.  e., 
the  natural  development  of  the  effects  of  his  action  upon 
earth,  but  only  a  visible  and  sudden,  a  miraculous  catastrophe. 

.  .  .  .  What  Jesus  says  in  the  principal  passage  of 
Matthew  (xxiv.  30,  etc.,  xxv.  31,  etc.).  .  .  .  such  a  de- 
scription resists  every  attempt  to  give  it  a  merely  symbolical 
meaning  ....  of  course,  it  is  but  too  plain  that  the 
speeches  referring  to  this  point  have  undergone  all  sorts  of 
later  modifications.  .  .  .  All  that,  however,  .  .  . 
does  not  touch  the  point  itself  with  which  we  are  here  con- 
cerned. .  .  .  Jesus  promised  to  return  into  his  kingdom; 
and  now  the  question  is,  how  he  spoke  on  other  occasions  of 
his  kingdom,  especially  whether  he  represented  it  as  one 
which  he  had  founded  already  during  his  human  existence, 
or  one  which  he  would  initiate  only  at  a  future  return.     • 

.  .  That  Jesus  distinguished  the  present  as  preparation, 
from  a  future  as  perfection,  this  life  as  a  period  of  earning 
[?J  from  a  life  to  come  as  recompense,  and  connected  with 


166  Appendix 

the  beginning  of  that  perfection  a  miraculous  change  of  the 
world  to  be  brought  about  by  God,  appears  not  only  in  the 
gospels  in  the  most  decided  manner,  if  any  historical  validity 
is  left  to  them,  but  must  also  be  assumed  from  the  bare 
historical  analogies.  .  .  .  But  if  Jesus  had  once  held  to 
that  conviction,  as  of  course  he  must  have  done,  if  he  dis- 
tinguished between  this  present  earthly  existence  and  a  future 
one  in  the  kingdom  of  God,  whether  in  heaven  or  on  the 
renovated  earth,  and  if  he  conceived  the  beginning  of  the  latter 
as  a  miraculous  act  of  God,  then  it  is  indifferent  in  what 
nearer  or  more  distant  period  he  placed  that  act,  and  it  would 
be  nothing  more  than  a  human  error  if  he  expected  it  after 
the  shortest  possible  delay  and  announced  the  expectation  for 
the  consolation  of  his  followers;  although  we  can  not  know 
whether  his  followers,  in  the  troubles  and  distress  after  his 
passing  away,  may  not  have  comforted  themselves  by  ascrib- 
ing to  him  such  prophecies  of  a  near  approach  of  the  better 
constitution  of  the  world.  In  all  those  speeches,  there  is  but 
one  point  that  creates  a  difficulty  for  us,  and  that  is,  that  Jesus 
is  said  to  have  connected  with  his  own  person  that  miraculous 
change,  the  beginning  of  that  ideal  state  of  recompense,  that 
he  is  said  to  have  designated  himself  as  the  one  who  will  come 
with  the  clouds  of  heaven,  accompanied  by  angels,  to  awaken 
the  dead  and  hold  judgment.  The  expectation  of  such  a 
thing  of  himself  is  something  quite  different  from  a  mere 
general  expectation  of  it,  and  he  that  expects  it  of  himself 
and  for  himself,  will  not  appear  to  us  as  only  a  fanatical 
enthusiast,  but  we  see  also  an  impermissible  self-exaltation  in 
it,  if  a  human  being  .  .  .  comes  to  think  of  selecting 
himself  to  such  an  extent  from  all  the  rest  as  to  put  himself 
up  as  their  future  judge.  ...  Of  course,  if  Jesus  was 
convinced  that  he  was  the  Messiah,  and  referred  the  prophecy 
in  Daniel  to  the  Messiah,  he  must  also  have  expected  in 
accordance  with  it,  sometime  or  other,  to  come  with  the 
clouds  of  heaven." 

With  that  last  "of  course,"  closes  that  rather  uncertain 
groping  for  a  verdict  for  or  against  the  matter.  But  with  what 
impression  does  an  unprejudiced  reader  take  leave  of  that 


Ignorance  about  Judaism  197 

disquisition?  If  he  is  really  unprejudiced,  he  will,  I  think, 
throw  down  that  apologetic,  even  in  its  new  dress,  as  worth- 
less, and  will  accept  as  firmly  established  historical  fact  only 
this:  Jesus  told  about  himself  that  he  was  the  Messiah,  and 
that,  in  accordance  with  that,  the  expected  new  period  of  the 
world  would  begin  with  his  appearance.  He  found  believers, 
and  after  he  was  executed,  the  belief  in  him  still  continued, 
the  beginning  of  the  new  period  of  the  world  was  expected 
from  day  to  day  with  his  early  return — he  was  looked  upon 
as  naving  already  arisen  from  the  dead.  He  himself  may 
have  expected  that  the  miraculous  beginning  of  the  new 
period  of  the  world  would  happen,  without  his  death  occurring 
before;  with  his  death,  that  expectation  changed,  as  stated. 

And  that,  indeed,  is  all  that  we  are  able  historically  to 
establish  concerning  him;  and  it  is  sufficient,  too,  for  an 
explanation,  not  only  of  his  appearance,  but  also  for  all 
consequences  that  followed  it.  That  historical  fact  must  not 
be  garbled,  must  not  be  weakened,  nor  must  other  things  not 
belonging  to  it  be  added,  lest  new  confusion  be  caused.  Thus 
it  puts  the  matter  out  of  the  proper  perspective  if  it  is  at- 
tempted to  attribute  to  him  the  belief  in  his  being  the  Son  of 
God  in  the  eminent  sense  of  the  term,  or  in  the  Messiah 
being  the  Logos;  and  above  all,  it  is  pure  delusion  to  attribute 
to  him  the  character  of  a  universal  God-Man  as  taught  by 
the  Hegelian  School.  The  idea  that  he  stepped  beyond 
national  and  legal  Judaism  must  also  be  totally  rejected,  and 
solely  ascribed  to  later  development.  Nor  can  the  nobler 
religious  and  moral  conceptions  and  doctrines  which  are 
put  in  his  mouth  and  heart — though  we  should  attribute  them 
to  him  and  acknowledge  their  excellence  with  necessary 
limitations — be  regarded  as  his  own  in  the  sense  that  he  was 
their  author  and  was  the  first  who  entertained  and  proclaimed 
them,  but  at  the  utmost  that  he  adopted  them  and  appro- 
priated them  as  he  found  them  already  made  by  others. 

And  here  we  have  arrived  at  the  point  which  to  us  is  the 
starting  point,  but  which  has  not  yet  risen  into  the  horizon 
of  Christian  science,  however  necessary  for  a  proper  under- 
standing.    It   not  only   lacks   the   knowledge,   but   also — 


198  Appendix 

however  heavy  the  charge  may  sound,  all  experience  leads  to 
prove  its  accuracy — the  uncovetous  acknowledgment  of  the 
property  of  others.  And  in  this  respect  also,  each  one  of  our 
authors  occupies  his  own  peculiar  position,  although  they 
meet  in  the  same  error  ultimately.  Mr.  Renan  makes  a 
running  start  toward  justice,  does  not  avoid  the  means  neces- 
sary to  a  clearer  understanding  in  order — as  he  is  pleased  to 
assume  the  same  of  his  ideal  pattern — to  have  a  serious 
relapse.  Mr.  Strauss  has  made  up  his  mind  at  the  very  start; 
on  this  point  he  fully  occupies  the  grounds  of  the  ancient 
apologetics,  repeats  the  old  faded  and  exploded  ideas  con- 
cerning the  Judaism  of  that  time,  knows  nothing  of  recent 
investigations,  and  though  he  may  not  be  charged  with 
intentionally  ignoring  them,  we  can  not  but  blame  him  for 
having  neglected  the  requisite  care  and  labor  to  inform  him- 
self of  them. 

Everyone  who  contemplates  the  origin  of  Christianity  with 
a  historical  eye  must  come  to  the  conclusion  that  he  has  to 
estimate  and  consider  the  three  co-operating  factors,  viz.: 
Palestinian  Judaism  of  that  time,  Hellenistic  Judaism,  and 
Roman-Grecian  culture.  It  appears  perfectly  natural  to  us 
that  former  writers  who,  from  the  start  ranged  themselves 
with  one  side,  looked  at  those  factors  through  the  spectacles 
of  their  party  and  presented  them  accordingly.  With  all  of 
those,  Palestinian  Judaism  fared  badly.  Some  painted  it  in 
very  black  colors  in  order  to  let  the  picture  of  rising  Chris- 
tianity stand  out  in  more  dazzling  brilliancy.  Others,  who 
admitted  that  Christianity  had  some  blemishes,  ascribed  them 
to  Judaism  of  that  time;  whatever  in  Christianity  did  not 
please  them  was  called  Jewish  prejudice  which  had  not  been 
quite  overcome  at  the  first  start  but  had  to  yield  gradually 
as  Christianity  gained  strength — or  must  yet  yield.  Of  men 
who  mean  to  consider  and  present  the  life  of  Jesus  from  a 
purely  historical  point  of  view,  we  can  demand  and  expect  a 
closer  examination  of  the  three  factors  named.  They  could, 
indeed,  pass  by  Hellenistic  Judaism  and  Pagan  culture,  both 
of  which  were  unknown  to  Jesus,  and  co-operate  only  in  the 
subsequent  development  of  Christianity,  and  they  are  perhaps 


Ignorance  about  Judaism  199 

even  forced  to  leave  them  in  the  background  in  order  to  avoid 
the  error  of  assuming  that  Jesus  had  been  influenced  by  those 
elements.  But  they  are  bound  to  examine  the  more  closely, 
the  rock  from  which  Christianity  was  originally  hewn,  the 
fountain  from  which  Jesus  himself,  and  exclusively  at  that, 
drew  his  knowledge.  Renan  in  fact  distinctly  denies  all 
influence  of  the  other  two  factors  and  abstains  from  further 
examination  of  both,  as  he  could  and  even  was  obliged  to  do 
for  his  present  purpose.  On  the  other  hand,  he  earnestly 
seeks  to  throw  light  upon  the  Judaism  of  that  time,  carefully 
informs  himself  of  all  recent  researches,  speedily  appropriates 
them,  and  makes  ready  with  unprejudiced  and  just  mind,  to 
disclose  the  fountain  and  its  contents  from  which  Jesus  had 
drawn.  If  some  harsh  and  queer  opinion  creeps  in,  some 
incorrect  statement  occurs,  it  happens  because  his  aids  are 
still  insufficient.  But  the  more  deeply  he  enters  into  the 
history,  the  more  embarrassing  the  foibles  of  his  hero  become 
to  him,  so  much  the  more  his  bias  gains  upon  him  and  he 
works  himself  into  wrath  against  Judaism  that  much  more. 
If  it  bothers  him  that  the  teacher  who  was  at  first  so  meek 
and  mild  "employed  very  harsh  expressions  against  his  oppo- 
nents," he  explains  it  by  this,  that  "Jesus  who  was  almost 
exempt  from  all  the  defects  of  his  race,  was  led  against  his 
will  into  making  use  of  the  style  used  by  all  the  polemics." 
"One  of  the  most  prominent  faults  of  the  Jewish  race  is  its 
bitterness  in  controversy,  and  the  abusive  tone  which  it  always 
throws  into  it "  (p.  325).  If  our  writer  soon  after  (p.  334)  does 
not  deduce  from  Judaism  the  manner  adopted  by  Jesus  in  con- 
troversy, it  is  done  because  he  there  means  to  make  it  a 
virtue:  "His  exquisite  scorn,  his  sharply  pointed  challenges 
always  struck  to  the  heart.  Eternal  brands,  they  seared  the 
marks  into  the  wounds  forever.  The  Nessus  shirt  of  ridicule 
which  the  Jew,  the  son  of  the  Pharisees,  has  dragged  along 
in  tatters  for  eighteen  centuries,  was  woven  by  Jesus  with 
divine  art.  Masterpieces  of  lofty  raillery,  the  marks  of  his 
brush  have  burned  into  fiery  lines  into  the  flesh  of  the  hypocrite 
and  pretender  of  devotion.  Incomparable  pictures,  worthy  of 
a  Son  of  God!    Only  a  God  can  kill  in  that  manner.    Socrates 


200  Appendix 

and  Moliere  but  graze  the  skin.  He  carries  fire  and  rage  into 
the  very  marrow  of  the  bones.'*  I  simply  quote  his  words, 
and  therefore  will  only  add  his  opinion  on  the  persons  who 
took  part  in  the  condemnation  of  Jesus,  and  on  their  pro- 
ceeding. Of  the  generation  of  the  high  priests  of  that  time, 
he  says  (p.  366):  "The  spirit  of  the  family  was  haughty, 
bold  and  cruel;  it  had  that  peculiar  and  reserved  malignity 
which  characterizes  Jewish  politics."  Mr.  Renan  caps  the 
climax  at  the  conclusion.  That  he  calls  (p.  396)  the  death  of 
Jesus  a  judicial  murder  and  yet  designates  it  as  legal  (p.  411) 
and  only  says  "The  law  was  detestable"  may  be  passed  over. 
He  is  also  kind  enough  to  admit  that  the  Jew  of  the  present 
day  should  not  be  made  to  suffer  on  account  of  the  application 
of  "that  detestable  law"  of  long  ago;  he  calls  it  (p.  412)  "the 
law  of  ferocity"  and  remarks,  "The  hero  who  offered  himself 
to  abrogate  it,  had  to  suffer  it  before  all."  And  then  he 
continues,  "Alas!  it  will  require  more  than  eighteen  hundred 
years  before  the  blood  which  he  now  loses  will  bear  its  fruit ! 
In  his  name,  for  centuries,  tortures  and  death  will  be  inflicted 
upon  thinkers  as  noble  as  he.  Even  to-day,  in  countries 
which  call  themselves  Christian,  penalties  are  imposed  for 
religious  delinquencies.  Jesus  is  not  responsible  for  such 
aberrations.  He  could  not  foresee  that  any  people  with  dis- 
ordered imagination  would  ever  conceive  him  as  a  frightful 
Moloch,  greedy  for  burnt  flesh.  Christianity  has  been 
intolerant,  but  intolerance  is  not  an  essentially  Christian  act. 
It  is  a  Jewish  act,"  etc. 

We  are  weary  of  citing  such  expressions  of  a  thinker  who 
otherwise  aspires  to  impartiality ;  the  relapse  appears  into  the 
old  apologetics  which  knew  to  defend  only  by  abuse.  How- 
ever, Mr.  Havet  has  already  exposed  in  the  Revue  des  Deux 
Mondes  the  injustice  of  such  a  mode  of  proceeding,  and  the 
belletristic  form  in  which  it  is  presented  removes  the  necessity 
of  serious  refutation.  Against  definite  charges  that  are  more 
than  unsupported  assertions,  we  are  at  all  times  ready  to 
enter  the  arena.  But  it  would  be  unjust  to  Mr.  Renan  to 
charge  him  with  a  considerable  remnant  of  religious  hatred. 
His  is  not  the  opinion  of  the  Christian  about  Jews  and  Judaism, 


Ignorance  about  Judaism  201 

it  is  the  race-jealousy  between  the  Aryan — i.  e.,  the  Indo- 
European  (or  we  call  it  the  Indo-German) — and  the  Semite. 
Mr.  Renan,  as  descendant  of  Japhet,  even  now,  fights  in  the 
Jew,  not  his  faith,  but  the  son  of  Shem.  Let  us  not  follow 
him  into  that  domain  of  the  jealousy  between  races.  Let  us 
pass  on  to  the  German  writer. 

In  my  opinion,  the  two  chapters  in  the  book  of  Strauss, 
entitled  respectively  *' Development  of  Judaism"  and  "De- 
velopment of  the  Greco-Roman  Culture"  are  the  weakest 
part  of  the  work.  The  latter  part,  and  especially  the  manner 
in  which  it  is  treated,  have  really  no  connection  with  the 
subject  of  the  book.  As  we  have  already  stated,  Grecian 
culture  was  unknown  to  Jesus  himself,  perhaps  even  its  very 
name,  and  can  not  afford  the  smallest  clue  to  an  explanation 
of  his  character.  But  even  into  the  succeeding  formation  of 
Christianity,  Grecian  culture  entered  as  a  fermentative  agent, 
rather  in  its  degenerate  state  than  in  its  earlier,  nobler  form. 
But  Mr.  Strauss  emphasizes  just  that  earlier  form  and  would 
like  to  ascribe  to  it  the  ennobling  moral  influence  on  incipient 
Christianity,  while  he  denies  such  work  to  Judaism.  An 
assertion  of  Welcker  serves  him  as  guide  (p.  180)  and  he 
quotes:  "Out  of  Hebrew  supernaturalism,  humanity  could 
never  have  proceeded;  for  in  proportion  as  its  conception  is 
earnest  and  exalted,  must  the  authority  and  the  law  of  the 
One  God  and  Master  press  down  human  God-conscious  liberty 
from  which  all  energy  and  cheerful  aspiration  to  the  best 
and  noblest  aims  emanates."  Mr.  Strauss  may  have  felt  the 
weakness  of  such  reasoning,  for  he  adds  with  a  view  to 
strengthening  it,  "Just  because  the  Divinity  did  not  confront 
the  Greek  in  the  force  of  a  commanding  law,  he  had  to  become 
a  law  unto  himself;  because  he  did  not,  like  the  Jew,  see  his 
life  regulated  for  him,  step  by  step,  he  was  compelled  to 
seek  for  a  moral  pattern  within  himself."  It  ought  to  be 
high  time  for  finally  dispensing  with  the  abuse  of  such  abstract 
construction  of  history.  Whoever  does  not  make  history 
along  the  lines  of  such  self-made  categories,  but  derives  it 
from  the  facts,  and  takes  pains  to  comprehend  it,  will  soon 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  the  moral  doctrines  of  a  people 


202  Appendix 

are  the  reflection  of  its  conception  of  the  Deity;  the  more 
perfect  the  thought  of  God,  the  more  exalted  the  ideal  towards 
which  man  aspires.  As  an  actual  fact,  just  that  moral 
rottenness  of  the  paganism  of  that  time  made  it  easier  for 
Christianity  to  gain  converts  among  serious  thinkers ;  Grecian 
culture  in  its  then  decomposed  state  was  a  troubled,  fermen- 
tative element,  but  never,  as  Strauss  would  like  to  make  it, 
a  worthy  instructress. 

What  Strauss  thus  attributes  and  adds  to  Grecian  culture, 
that  he  deducts  in  good  measure  from  Judaism.  With 
delight  he  grabs  for  its  actual  or  alleged  defects,  and  his 
knowledge  of  the  Judaism  of  that  time  stands  on  the  same 
plane  which  he  occupied  twenty-nine  years  ago.  As  then, 
so  even  now  he  ransacks  Eisenmenger  and  Gfoerer  that  they 
may  supply  him  through  channels  outside  of  legitimate 
criticism  with  passages  from  comparatively  recent  works, 
such  as  that  of  an  addle-brained  cabal ist  of  two  hundred 
years  ago,  Ruben  Hoeschke,  viz.  his  Yalkut  Rubeni  and  the 
like.  He  shares  that  ignorance  with  the  entire  Christian 
science  in  Germany;  yet  he  almost  surpasses  it  in  ignoring 
all  recent  researches  in  Jewish  literature,  and  his  delight  in 
painting  Judaism  in  the  darkest  shades  is  evident.  His 
continual  placing  of  priests  and  prophets  in  juxtaposition 
without  divining  the  fundamental  antagonism  between  the 
principles  animating  them;  his  presenting  of  priests  and 
Pharisees  as  one,  his  outlines  of  the  Sadducees  and  Pharisees, 
his  dwelling  with  preference  on  the  Essenes  who  were  without 
sensible  inflyence  and  of  whom  only  the  unreliable  Josephus 
gives  an  extended  account;  his  manipulation  of  the  stenciled 
categories  of  obstinacy,  narrowmindedness,  one-sidedness, 
national  rigidity,  etc.,  exhibit  the  deplorable  relapse  of  the 
historian  into  the  prejudiced  apologist  whose  phrase  and 
verbiage  but  poorly  veil  the  lack  of  knowledge  and  fathoming 
of  the  actual  relation  of  the  facts.*  In  that,  he  outdoes 
modern  science,  which  still  gropes  in  the  dark  with  uncertain 
steps  in  this  part  of  history,  and  continues  to  operate  with 

*  For  some  particulars,  compare  II.  Vol.,  pp.  295,  etc.,  in  my  "Juedische 
Zeitschrift  fuer  Wissenschaft  und  Leben." 


Ignorance  about  Judaism  203 

old,  used-up  material  without  examining  it  anew  or  increasing 
it,  but  which  yet  sometimes  feels  an  impulse  to  gain  better 
knowledge.  Mr.  Strauss  seems  to  have  stopped  investiga- 
tion, and  thereby  gives  up  the  office  of  historian. 

It  is  a  very  deplorable  fact  that  men  who  are  as  highly 
esteemed  by  one  side  for  their  religious  liberality  as  they  are 
condemned  by  the  other,  are  so  little  familiar  with  the  very 
territory  an  exact  knowledge  of  which  is  indispensable  to  a 
scientific  examination  of  the  subject,  and  that  they  cling 
with  a  certain  tenacity  to  antiquated  prejudices.  To  melt 
the  ice  of  unjust  prejudice  may  be  left  to  the  sun  of  pro- 
gressive civilization.  But  the  continued  efforts  of  true  science 
alone  can  succeed  in  overcoming  ignorance.  We  can  not 
clear  the  Jewish  students  of  science  from  the  charge  that 
they  have  not  sufficiently  turned  their  attention  to  the 
investigation  of  the  most  important  periods  and  develop- 
ments and  thereby  afforded  in  their  works,  material  and 
results  to  Christian  investigators  for  correction  of  their 
opinion.  But  Christian  science  is  not  justified  thereby.  In 
any  other  department,  scholars  would  long  hesitate  to  pro- 
nounce a  final  judgment  upon  subjects  for  the  examination 
of  which  the  necessary  premises  and  capacities  are  wanting; 
only  as  far  as  Judaism  is  concerned,  they  think  to  be  at 
liberty  to  act  with  sovereign  licentiousness.  At  all  events, 
it  is  the  right,  as  well  as  the  duty,  of  the  Jewish  scholar 
emphatically  to  expose  such  proceedings.  We  hope  that  all 
sides  will  seriously  undertake  a  thorough  and  unbiased 
investigation  of  Jewish  ancient  history  and  bring  their  results 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  general  public. 


Second  Part 

In  Twelve  Lectures,  with  an  Appendix:  Open  Letter  to 
Professor  Dr.  Holtzmann 


Preface. 

The  recital  in  this  part  starts  from  the  same  basic  idea, 
continues  that  of  the  first  part,  and  the  produced  historic 
development  can  itself  undertake  the  justification  of  my 
concept  of  history.  The  introductory  and  closing  remarks, 
to  which  I  count  also  the  "Open  Letter"  (a  defense  against 
attacks  on  the  first  part),  likewise  contain  some  confirmation 
of  it.  The  matter  develops  in  this  volume  closer  to  the 
thread  of  history,  and  as  I  could  not  presume  the  events, 
the  most  important  spiritual  moments  and  carriers  of  the 
period  treated,  as  so  well  known  as  those  of  the  preceding 
one,  I  had  to  set  forth  more  definitely  the  general  content 
of  the  time  as  far  as  it  contains  the  impress  and  development 
of  Judaism.  Accordingly,  this  part  had  to  draw  the  essential 
Jewish-historical  part  with  large  strokes,  and  it  may  thereby 
help  the  larger  cultured  public  to  a  better  acquaintance  with 
Jewish  history  without  claiming  to  furnish  a  complete  his- 
torical work.  Yet  it  is  to  be  hoped  that  a  sharp  imprint  of 
the  character  of  each  time  and  the  inner  historic  connection 
will  be  perceived  so  much  the  more  easily.  In  the  selection 
of  the  facts,  the  representation  of  which  the  intelligent 
reader  will  easily  notice  to  rest  upon  independent  investiga- 
tion without  requiring,  according  to  the  plan  of  the  book, 
copious  citations,  there  was  no  room  for  new,  detailed  exam- 
inations, and  I  had  to  be  satisfied  with  a  few  short  notices 
which  treat  more  fully  of  some  especially  interesting  particu- 
lars illustrating  the  general  mental  condition. 

May  this  part,  too,  enjoy  the  favor  of  the  readers.  When 
in  the  eleven  centuries  of  which  it  treats  during  an  exceed- 
ingly dry  period  of  the  world's  history,  there  is  yet  revealed 
within  Judaism  so  much  motion  of  spirit  influencing  the  entire 
development,  the  superiority  with  which  "Jewish  affairs'* 
are  kept  at  a  distance  as  not  worth  considering,  might  bq 


208  Judaism  and  Its  History 

surrendered,  the  impregnation  starting  thence  be  acknowl- 
edged, and  the  duty  accepted  to  become  better  acquainted 
with  them  as  influential  historical  factors  of  the  world. 

Geiger. 

Frankfort  on  the  Main,  May  ii,  1865. 


Contents. 

Page 
Preface 207 

First  Lecture:     Introduction 211 

Second  Lecture:    The  Dissolution  of  the  State  and  Its 

Consequences 216 

Third  Lecture :    Akiba.     Interpretation  of  the  Scriptures 

Mishnah.     Babylonian  Gemara 230 

Fourth  Lecture :     Islam 247 

Fifth  Lecture :     Karaites.     Awakening  of  Science 260 

Sixth  Lecture:    Saadias 275 

Seventh  Lecture:     In  Spain 286 

Eighth  Lecture :     First  Half  of  the  Eleventh  Century.  . . .  300 

Ninth  Lecture:    The  Orient.      Spain  from  1070  to  1140.  317 

Tenth  Lecture:    Aben  Esra  and  Maimonides 332 

Eleventh  Lecture :     In  Germany  and  France 354 

Twelfth  Lecture:     Italy  and  Provence 369 

Notes 383 

Appendix:    Open  Letter  to  Prof.  H.  I.  Holtzmann 387 


I. 

Introduction. 

Judaism  had  not  completed  its  mission  with  the  end  of 
its  second  commonwealth.  Within  itself,  it  had  completely 
conquered  idolatry,  and  had  worked  the  idea  of  the  unity 
and  sanctity  of  God  into  a  living  conviction.  It  had  repre- 
sented to  man  that  divine  sublimity  as  pattern  to  be  imitated, 
had  exhorted  him  to  act  as  a  likeness  of  it.  It  had  almost 
reduced  to  complete  loss  of  importance  the  pretentious 
influence  of  a  privileged  priest-caste  and  an  atoning  sacrificial 
service,  and  had  brought  into  prominence  the  equality  of  men 
and  their  value  according  to  their  free  moral  aspiration. 
But  these  foundation  principles  of  all  truly  human  piety, 
these  eternal  truths  to  which  all  mankind  shall  rise,  had  been 
worked  out  within  a  tribe  which  felt  the  necessity  of  forming 
itself  into  a  narrow,  close  nation,  because  they  had  grown 
up  amidst  an  environment  led  by  vastly  different  convictions. 
The  Jewish  people  had,  therefore,  to  separate  itself  with 
some  severity,  in  order  not  to  be  seized  by  those  aberrations, 
while  it  could  not,  on  the  other  hand,  wholly  avoid  the  in- 
fluences from  without,  and  many  customs  entered  into  its 
religious  thought  and  life  which  never  sprouted  from  its  idea, 
but  rather  were  intruders  from  the  surrounding  nations. 
Thus  the  mission  of  Judaism  was  not  completed.  It  lived 
separate,  it  accepted  this  separation  as  a  duty,  and  had  to 
keep  it  up  according  to  the  condition  then  prevailing,  while 
according  to  its  true  calling  it  shall  pour  out  over  all  mankind, 
in  love  embracing  all.  It  should  guide  man  to  walk  in  the 
ways  of  God,  in  the  ways  of  the  highest  wisdom  and  the 
highest  moral  freedom;  it  should  educate  him  to  that,  and 
it  was  through  its  exclusion,  as  well  as  through  the  influence 
of  its  environment,  forced  into  many  unfree  extraneous 
formalities. 


212  Judaism  and  Its  History 

Whether  Judaism  with  undisturbed  development  in  its 
home  country  would  have  broken  through  those  barriers, 
whether  it  would,  according  to  the  enthusiastic  view  of  its 
prophets,  have  opened  its  gates  wide  for  the  reception  of  all 
humanity,  whether  it  would  have  developed  from  within  to 
overcome  all  legal  formalities,  is  a  question  which  the  course 
of  history  does  not  answer  for  us.  Nearly  contemporaneous 
with  the  dissolution  of  the  Jewish  state,  the  attempt  appeared 
to  proclaim  the  entrance  of  the  Messianic  time  and  the 
dominion  of  Judaism  as  near  at  hand  or  actually  in  existence, 
but  the  attempt  had  come  from  an  over-excited  time,  wrestling 
with  despair;  neither  the  Jewish  people  nor  humanity  was 
sufficiently  prepared  for  that.  Truth  is  not  conquered  by  a 
charge;  it  penetrates  gradually  and  transfigures.  Judaism, 
indeed,  sent  forth  a  messenger  who  in  course  of  time  made 
many  of  its  doctrines  the  common  property  of  mankind; 
but,  soon  estranged  from  the  faith  that  had  sent  him,  he 
accepted,  when  he  entered  into  the  world  and  mixed  with 
the  heathen,  also  much  of  that  world,  and  blended  with 
paganism.  The  mission  of  Judaism  was  not  accomplished 
by  that. 

It  was  itself  to  journey  into  the  world  with  all  its  mem- 
bers, according  to  the  entire  form  of  life  which  it  had  taken. 
The  call  of  the  spirit  directing  history  went  out  to  Judaism: 
Go  out  over  the  whole  earth,  prove  thy  power  in  it,  preserve 
thyself,  purify  thyself,  and  win  over  all  mankind.  It  did  not 
do  that  from  free  choice,  nor  with  a  heart  confident  of  vic- 
tory; sad  necessity  imposed  the  journey;  shy,  anxious,  and 
timid,  it  stepped  into  a  world  which  it  regarded  with  suspicion. 
And  the  world  growlingly  turned  its  eyes  upon  it  and  noticed 
it  with  suspicion  and  gloom.  Thus  Judaism  was  cast  into 
conditions  pot  only  foreign  but  hostile.  Its  battle  had  to  be 
fought  for  a  long  time,  more  for  mere  preservation  than  for 
purification  and  extension.  It  must  therefore  not  surprise  us 
when  we  notice  the  endeavor  for  separation,  for  anxious 
preservation  of  every  trifling  differentiation,  and  see  such 
endeavor  crowded  to  the  front.  The  indestructibility  of  the 
fundamental  ideas  was  to  be  proved  even  under  the  most 


Introduction  213 

unfavorable  circumstances,  and  has  been  proved,  even  when 
in  the  difficulties  under  which  they  were  forced  to  labor,  they 
found  singular  expressions.  A  plant  that  roots  in  darkness, 
works  in  singular  twists  and  turns  towards  the  light;  it  takes 
shapes  and  forms  which  are  wholly  strange  to  its  nature. 
But  he  would  be  a  poor  botanist  that  would  judge  of  the 
species  according  to  such  crooks  contrary  to  its  nature.  The 
expert  will  not  misjudge  the  normal  nature  and  force,  he  will 
rather  admire  in  the  anomaly,  the  endeavor  to  get  to  the 
light.  In  the  same  way,  he  poorly  judges  Judaism,  who 
attributes  its  medieval  abnormity  to  its  innermost  nature, 
and  does  not  take  into  consideration  how  it  had  to  wind 
through  all  artificial  restraints,  get  over  unsurmountable 
barriers,  breathe  in  tainted  air,  exist  in  the  dark  shadow  of 
death  lurking  on  every  side,  that  does  not  rather  admire  the 
inexhaustible  force  of  life  with  which  it  has  not  only  preserved 
itself,  but  even  worked  to  the  light  by  every  possible  way, 
how  it  has  been  able  to  soon  straighten  out  its  crooks  and 
has  not  been  wrecked  under  all  those  unfavorable  conditions 
in  its  process  of  purification  and  its  salutary  effects. 

For  Judaism  does  not  present  to  us,  even  from  the  time 
when  it  began  its  journey  among  the  nations,  the  picture  of 
decay;  its  way  is  not  barren;  rich  seeds  of  the  spirit  are 
scattered  by  it  and  impregnate  the  soil  of  humanity.  The 
following  chapters  shall  furnish  the  proof.  Not  in  the  sense 
that  we  are  arbitrarily  selecting  proofs  for  an  arbitrarily 
accepted  result.  We  want  to  undertake  our  journeyings 
through  the  centuries,  as  far  as  we  are  favored  to  continue 
them,  not  with  the  intention  of  shutting  our  eyes  before  sad 
apparitions,  spiritual  deterioration  and  malformation,  to 
exclusively  accentuate  the  predominant  healthy  developments, 
to  veil  the  other  sides  or  even  put  them  by  artificial  illumina- 
tion into  a  blinding  light  and  lend  them  a  magic  charm. 
That  would  be  falsification  of  history.  Let  us  keep  far 
from  that  oblique  consideration  of  the  Middle  Ages,  from 
that  forced  praise  of  the  sad  aberrations  of  that  long  period 
of  time.  Let  us  give  honor  to  the  truth,  even  when  it  wounds 
us  and  gives  us  pain.     We  see  a  long  period  of  the  world's 


214  Judaism  and  Its  History 

history  go  its  peculiar  ways,  fight  its  heavy,  calamitous 
battle,  first  with  manifold  relapses,  and  after  frequent  falls, 
rise  by  the  greatest  efforts  to  very  slowly  ripening  results. 
Within  this  history,  Judaism,  which  has  not  made  the  con- 
ditions, but  is  suffering  with  and  by  them,  is  producing 
remarkable  phenomena  of  itself.  This  historic  fact  shines 
forth  to  us  by  all  exact  knowledge  and  open  view,  and  so 
much  the  more,  the  more  exact  our  knowledge  and  the  more 
open  the  view.  To  bring  into  prominence  this  unmistakable 
truth  of  history  is  not  a  constraint  forced  upon  history;  it  is 
the  true  expression  of  its  innermost  movement;  to  explain 
this  highly  remarkable  fact  from  the  deep  impulse  which  in 
Judaism  even  under  the  burdensome  oppression  constantly 
stirred  its  forces  afresh,  is  no  far-fetched  interpretation,  no 
artificial  extenuation,  it  is  the  quite  simple  presentation  of 
the  development  which  evidences  itself  as  according  to  nature, 
This  proceeding  in  the  contemplation  of  history  is  a  truly 
unprejudiced  objective  one.  The  investigator  who  proceeds 
in  this  way  does  not  permit  his  sight  to  be  dimmed  by  the 
power  gained  by  an  opposing  tendency,  while  Judaism  had 
pantingly  to  drag  itself  along.  The  conditions  of  power,  even 
if  existing  for  a  long  time,  are  no  final  judgment  of  God  in 
the  world's  history.  The  good  and  true  has  to  wrestle  long 
before  it  can  rise  from  its  insignificance  and  lowness  and 
surmount  the  mass  of  opposing  obstacles.  Error  or  half- 
truth  suits  an  imperfect  stage  better  than  the  whole  or  more 
developed  truth.  The  final  verdict  is  only  given  at  the  end 
and  when  the  end  arrives  in  the  course  of  history,  who  will 
determine  that?  The  world's  history  has  not  yet  passed  over 
Judaism;  it  still  stands,  stands  in  full  freshness,  receptiveness^ 
and  capacity  of  development.  He  that  explains  it,  he  that 
reveals  the  reason  of  its  endurance,  is  the  unprejudiced 
investigator,  not  he  that  in  his  imagined  superiority  ignores 
it.  Whoever  judges  objectively  will  no  longer  permit  himself 
to  be  misled  by  deteriorations  which  sometimes  were  con- 
ditioned by  its  own  peculiar  circumstances  and  sometimes 
were  forced  from  without;  he  will  penetrate  to  the  creative 
force  which  did  not  exhaust  itself  in  those  malformations. 


Introduction  215 

which  was  yet  able  to  surmount  and  set  them  aside,  and  now 
works  on  their  removal  and  on  noble  new  formations.  That 
is  poor  objectivity  which  sees  only  the  particularities  that 
force  themselves  to  the  surface,  puts  them  together  and 
expects  to  form  by  that  a  picture  true  to  nature;  a  faithful 
picture  must  not  only  fix  the  momentary  distortion  of  the 
features  but  it  must  render  the  enduring  character  which  rules 
every  situation,  even  the  most  disagreeable  one. 

From  many  sides,  such  a  proceeding  may  again  be  called 
apologeticSj  with  an  insinuation  of  condemnation.  Against 
the  word  I  have  no  objection.  To  get  for  the  misjudged 
good  its  right  of  which  it  has  been  despoiled,  to  undertake 
the  defense  of  an  unjustly  reviled  person  or  matter  may  be 
called  apologetics,  as  Plato  and  Xenophon  wrote  apologies  of 
their  master,  Socrates.  But  such  apologetics  is  meritorious, 
is  no  blamable  distortion,  is  no  fencing  trick  of  a  pettifogger. 
They  may  always  call  our  endeavor  apologetical ;  we  shall  not 
be  frightened  by  the  word,  but  rather  glory  in  such  apolo- 
getics. To  defend  the  weak,  to  awaken  a  minority  that  is 
gradually  losing  heart,  to  a  conscious  knowledge  of  their 
rights  and  get  them  their  dues  although  they  are  blamed  and 
disgraced  by  a  public  opinion  which  the  privileged  ones  have 
produced  and  preserve  for  their  self-glorification,  such  defense 
is  an  enterprise  which  had  at  all  times  more  attraction  for 
noble  men  than  that  cheap  and  dishonorable  course  of  flatter- 
ing the  powerful  and  mocking  the  wronged  and  disinherited 
by  jeers. 

But  let  us  keep  far  from  excitement  and  pass  on  to  the 
facts. 


II. 

The  Dissolution  of  the  State  and  Its  Conse- 
quences, Divine  Service,  NationaHty 
and  Faith,  Akiba. 

The  murderous  fight  about  Jerusalem  was  ended;  to  the 
last  moment  the  courageous  remainder  that  had  retreated  into 
the  Temple,  defended  its  ruined  walls.  It  was  a  hot  fight  in 
and  about  Jerusalem,  about  the  Temple  and  within  it,  and 
long  after  every  prudent  calculation  had  seen  the  last  glimmer 
of  hope  fade  away,  the  zeal  of  those  passionately  enthusiastic 
for  their  noblest  possessions  could  not  be  restrained  from 
giving  their  bodies  over  to  sure  destruction.  The  fight  was 
terminated,  the  Temple  fell,  it  had  become  a  ruin.  Whether 
it  was  intentionally,  by  order  of  the  commander,  or  through 
the  blind  rage  of  the  soldiery,  set  afire,  is  not  certain ;  at  any 
rate,  the  flames  consumed  it.  The  last  remainder  of  inde- 
pendence had  given  way,  Judea  was  conquered,  the  state 
was  shattered,  and  consequently  there  was  nothing  left  of 
actual  nationality  and  independent  administration.  Mighty 
convulsions  of  that  kind  are  attended  with  complete  trans- 
formations, but  the  consequences  are  of  greatly  varying  kind. 
If  they  hit  institutions  which  are  already  hollow  and  under- 
mined, the  blast  shatters  what  had  been  preserved  simply  by 
force  of  habit,  and  makes  room  for  new  formations  and  new 
institutions.  The  effect  of  such  convulsion  is  different  upon 
arrangements  and  institutions  which  until  then  were  yet  fully 
alive,  though  needing  a  transformation  in  their  root,  or  only 
leaning  upon  the  whole  and  not  existing  by  their  own  living 
force.  If  they  have  never  been  questioned  and  are  now  first 
shaken  by  the  sudden  turn  of  things,  those  who  are  touched 
thereby  hold  to  them  so  much  the  more  strongly  and  are  more 
anxious,  in  order  not  to  lose  by  outside  pressure,  something 


Dissolution  of  the  State  and  Its  Consequences  217 

which  they  carried  along  as  a  valued  possession.  In  this 
manner  appeared  the  consequences  of  the  dissolution  of  the 
Jewish  state  and  the  destruction  of  the  Temple. 

Up  to  that  time,  a  thousand  years*  fight  had  been  fought 
about  Temple,  sacrificial  service,  and  priesthood;  a  fight  of 
a  thousand  years,  in  which  the  noblest  forces  demanded  a 
rejuvenation  or  a  complete  removal,  a  different  expression  of 
ideas  from  the  manner  in  which  they  were  represented  by 
priesthood  and  sacrificial  service.  For  a  long  time  the  old 
prophets  and  the  later  teachers  had  sometimes  totally  rejected 
sacrificial  service  and  priesthood,  and  sometimes  at  least 
represented  spiritual  service  as  much  more  meritorious  and 
rooting  more  properly  in  the  essence  of  Judaism.  In  the 
meeting-houses  of  the  Pharisees  and  their  societies,  a  new 
divine  service  had  grown  up  alongside  and  outside  of  the 
Temple  service.  In  these  meetings,  prayer,  contemplation, 
and  instruction,  took  the  place  of  sacrifice;  it  was  a  divine 
service  in  a  smaller  circle  which  existed  by  the  side  of  the 
general  official  one,  which  perhaps  was  not  considered  as 
sufficient  for  the  whole  nation,  but  which  still  took  away  the 
best  forces  from  that  official  divine  service.  Thus,  priest- 
hood and  sacrificial  service  had  long  been  outgrown;  yet  as 
existing  arrangements  they  were  too  much  connected  with 
the  whole  life  of  the  nation,  were  too  closely  interlaced  with 
all  institutions  of  the  state,  were  so  closely  joined  with  the 
administration  and  government  that  their  removal  could 
hardly  have  been  expected  as  long  as  the  exterior  conditions 
for  their  preservation  were  not  absent.  Now,  the  wind  came 
and  the  withered  stem  fell  down.  Sacrificial  service  and 
priesthood  were  suddenly  swept  away,  the  Temple  which  had 
been  their  necessary  basis,  existed  no  more.  If  the  institution 
had  been  alive,  it  would  have  been  possible  to  look  up  a  new 
place  for  it;  but  such  a  desire  was  not  at  all  in  the  spirit  of 
the  time.  The  new  divine  service,  prayer,  took  the  place  of 
the  old  Temple  service.  Prayer,  contemplation,  and  instruc- 
tion, as  they  already  were  in  practice  in  the  meeting-houses 
(synagogs)  of  the  societies  of  the  Pharisees,  were  now  recognized 
as  the  only  true  worship  of  God,  which  should  rule  in  Israel, 


218  Judaism  and  Its  History 

That  was  a  great  step,  Judaism  itself  rose  by  it  to  a 
higher  plane,  offered  a  high  gift  to  all  humanity.  As  long 
as  divine  service  consists  in  pilgrimage  and  exterior  symbolical 
service,  it  remains  on  the  plane  of  childhood;  when  the 
definite  place  gives  the  consecration,  when  the  place  only, 
gives  to  the  assembly  the  possibility  of  approaching  their  god, 
so  long  worship  of  God  remains  something  coming  to  man 
from  without,  only  a  dim  idea  of  the  sublimity  of  a  higher 
overwhelming  power  is  excited,  it  remains  at  the  plane  of 
obscure  sensation,  at  childish  babble  that  struggles  for  expres- 
sion. Only  with  the  step,  that  the  place  does  not  consecrate 
the  assembly,  but  that  the  assembly  gives  the  place  its 
importance ;  that  the  clear  and  definite  thought  is  pronounced 
and  not  hovering  in  general  dim  sentiment;  that  the  manly, 
ripe  expression  takes  the  place  of  the  childish  babble;  that 
man  struggles  to  apprehend  with  full  consciousness  his  rela- 
tion to  God  and  to  render  it  in  definite,  clear  words,  to  enter 
into  himself  and  to  securely  lay  down  the  resulting  contem- 
plations: only  then  man  is  truly  religious,  only  then  religion 
has  produced  ripened  fruit.  For  divine  service  is  not  a 
religious  exercise  at  the  side  of  many  various  other  ones,  is 
not  a  single  religious  action  at  the  side  of  which  many  equal 
ones  have  the  same  rank;  divine  service  is  the  immediate 
expression  of  man's  relation  to  God.  Here  he  wants  to  put 
together  all  the  sensations  and  thoughts  that  he  is  filled  with 
towards  God  and  which  join  him  to  God.  Divine  service  is 
the  expression  of  the  common  consciousness  of  a  community 
of  the  same  faith  and  of  their  religious  position ;  in  the  purity 
and  depth  of  divine  service  the  truth  of  the  religious  creed 
is  reflected  in  the  clearest  manner.  The  plane  to  which, 
accordingly,  Judaism  has  risen,  must  be  apprehended  in  its 
full  importance.  We  have  become  used  to  divine  service  as 
an  existing  fact,  but  this  fact  is  an  acquisition  of  Judaism  and 
has,  therefore,  only  been  perfectly  communicated  to  those 
religions  which  have  gone  forth  from  Judaism  or  are  leaning 
upon  it.  When  another  motive  than  prayer,  contemplation, 
and  instruction,  presses  forward,  the  condition  of  obscure 
sentiment  recurs,  mankind  has  suffered  a  relapse,  religion  has 


Nationality  and  Faith  219 

lost  its  purity  and  the  fight  must  be  fought  anew,  in  order 
to  again  acquire  that  old  genuine  possession  which  Judaism 
has  handed  out. 

That  is  on  one  side  a  consequence  of  the  great  convulsion 
which  proceeded  from  the  fall  of  the  Temple  and  the  disso- 
lution of  the  state.  In  another  manner  those  consequences 
are  not  made  so  clear  and  plain.  Judaism  had  arisen  in  a 
people;  this  people  was  the  carrier  of  the  ideas  of  that  faith 
and  it  could  not  historically  be  otherwise.  The  religion 
reached  out  far  beyond  the  barriers  of  the  people;  it  taught 
that  it  should  at  some  time  become  the  common  property  of 
mankind;  it  did  not  confine  itself  to  the  compatriots  but 
joyfully  accepted  all  who  acknowledged  it  in  true  and  full 
fidelity. 

Not  Jewish  parentage  made  one  a  member  of  that  nation, 
but  the  acknowledgment  of  the  faith.  The  stranger  and  the 
home-born,  thus  it  was  continually  repeated,  were  to  be 
perfectly  equal.  Yet  for  the  present,  Judaism  existed  among 
definite  people,  the  religion  was  interlaced  with  this  nationality 
and  closely  interwoven  with  the  life  of  its  state.  Where 
religion  and  people  coincide,  where  religion  and  state  institu- 
tions remain  in  constant  reaction  upon  each  other,  there  the 
state  is,  of  course,  consecrated  in  its  laws  and  institutions  by 
the  religious  life  breathed  into  it;  but  vice  versa,  the  religious 
institutions  become  at  the  same  time  commands  of  the  state 
and  popular  custom,  they  penetrate  and  color  the  ideas  of 
right  which  the  state  is  called  upon  to  materialize ;  they  wear 
the  garment  of  nationality  which  that  people  has  to  form. 
As  long  as  people  and  religion,  state  and  doctrine  progressed 
within  Judaism  with  hands  joined,  isolated  clouds  might  arise 
out  of  such  commingling,  but  the  junction  was  a  natural  one. 
But  now  the  people's  bands  were  dissolved,  nationality  was 
to  cease,  the  state  was  broken  up,  the  confessors  of  Judaism 
became  and  should  become  members  of  that  people  among 
whom  they  lived  and  citizens  of  the  state  within  the  sov- 
ereignty of  which  they  resided.  How  will  this  religion  now 
accomplish  its  new  task  within  this  new  position?  Is  Judaism 
really  so  completely  permeated  by  nationality  that  it  cannot 


220  Judaism  and  Its  History 

exist  without  the  same,  is  its  real  task  exhausted  as  soon  as 
nationality  has  disappeared?  Or  does  this  religion  (Judaism) 
stand  higher  than  nationality,  will  it  dissolve  the  national  ties 
by  which  it  was  swathed,  and  strive  to  respond  to  the  call 
of  becoming  common  property  of  mankind? 

That  question  came  to  Judaism  with  precipitation;  history 
put  it  without  preparation.  Until  then  a  perforation  of 
nationality  had  not  been  striven  for;  on  the  contrary,  its 
strengthening  was  desired  that  it  might  be  a  support  to  the 
religion.  What  is  to  be  withdrawn  so  suddenly  is  not  sur- 
rendered so  readily.  Nor  was  the  problem  recognized  in  its 
full  clearness  at  once.  A  people  that  has  just  been  sub- 
jugated and  is  still  bleeding  from  a  thousand  wounds  is  so 
much  the  less  inclined  to  surrender  the  smallest  particle  of 
what  has  been  saved  of  its  national  force.  The  convulsions 
of  the  organism  just  cut  through  are  so  mighty  that  it  appears 
as  the  highest  task  to  preserve  the  life  still  pulsating,  and  hope 
is  yet  present  of  quickly  bringing  about  a  complete  restoration. 
Things  were  at  first  arranged  as  well  as  could  be  done.  Jeru- 
salem could  no  longer  be  the  place  of  assembly ;  they  removed 
to  Jamnia  to  preserve  coherence  from  there ;  a  new  magistracy 
was  established  there,  the  old  institutions  were  observed  as 
far  as  they  were  possible  in  life,  and  new  ordinances  and 
arrangements  necessary  for  the  moment  were  set  up.  It  is 
significant  that  most  of  them  proceeded  from  this  view: 
"Perhaps  the  Temple  will  be  rebuilt  to-morrow;  everything 
must  be  prepared  for  that,  we  must  be  properly  ready  to  move 
into  it  at  once."  Thus  the  dissolution  was  regarded  as  a 
condition  that  would  soon  pass  by:  "All  will  soon  be  formed 
over,  for  the  moment  we  had  to  give  way  to  superior  force, 
things  will  level  up  again,  the  old  conditions  will  be  renewed, 
let  us  keep  prepared  and  ready  for  them." 

Soon  the  silent  longing  was  not  enough;  the  convulsions 
took  life,  attempts  at  rebellion  appeared,  and  barely  seventy 
years  after  the  destruction  of  the  Temple,  about  130,  a 
powerful  rising  took  place,  it  seemed  as  if  the  fight  would  be 
made  all  over  again.  The  rebellion  had  wonderful  fresh  and 
new  strength  and  kept  in  the  field  during  several  years  against 


Ben-Kosiba.  Persecutions  221 

the  veteran  legions  and  the  powerful  dominion  of  Rome. 
Under  Ben-Kosiba  (also  called  Bar  Kokhba,  "the  son  of  the 
star'*  or  "starlike" — so  hailed  as  the  star  that  was  to  rise 
out  of  Jacob)  whose  real  name  we  do  not  even  know,  but  is 
supposed  to  have  been  Simeon — under  Ben-Kosiba,  a  cour- 
ageous troop  gathered  and  he  was  a  brave  and  skillful  general. 
He  knew  how  to  attach  the  scattered  remnants  to  himself,  and 
to  breathe  courage  into  them  for  resistance  against  the 
powerful  adversaries.  Especially  in  the  mountain  fortress 
Bethar,  he  maintained  himself  for  a  long  time ;  the  life  breath 
of  Israel  was  kept  in  anxious  suspense  by  his  enterprise;  but 
he  succumbed,  and  every  hope  of  a  successful  rising  dis- 
appeared. 

Then  a  sad  time  began.  So  far,  the  Romans,  if  not 
particularly  mild  to  the  Jews,  who  were  subjugated  enemies, 
had,  on  the  whole,  paid  no  attention  to  their  interior  institu- 
tions and  religious  opinions,  but  now  the  conditions  took 
another  turn.  Every  Jewish  ordinance,  every  custom,  was 
considered  a  sign  of  rebellion;  they  no  longer  saw  in  it  a 
religious  practice  proceeding  from  the  heart,  but  considered 
them  the  visible  marks  of  a  rebellion  which  must  be  put  down 
with  fire  and  sword.  "Why  art  thou  condemned  to  die  on 
the  cross?" — "Because  I  performed  circumcision." — "Why 
art  thou  sentenced  to  die?" — "Because  I  rested  on  the 
Sabbath." — "Why  art  thou  whipped?" — "Because  I  observed 
the  feast  of  the  tabernacles."  Such  conversations  have  been 
handed  down  from  that  time.  The  most  severe  punishments 
were  ordered  to  keep  the  Jew  from  making  himself  known  as 
professing  his  religion;  the  gloomy  shadows  of  "the  time  of 
danger,  the  time  of  repression  of  the  faith"  run  through  this 
later  literature. 

Yet,  persecution  and  blood  are  the  surest  means  to  fortify 
opposing  opinions,  instead  of  suppressing  them.  The  ancient 
teachers  with  deep  historic  insight  said:  "That  for  which 
the  Israelites  have  given  their  life,  has  become  firm  and 
constant  within  them;  what  they  have  not  sealed  with  their 
blood  has  not  acquired  such  enduring  force."  Particulars  that 
would   have  seemed   nonessential  and  would   never  have 


222  Judaism  and  Its  History 

appeared  as  the  center,  were  now  to  attain  a  higher  value 
because  so  much  had  to  be  suffered  for  them,  and  they  even 
became  foundations  of  the  faith.  The  persecutions  which, 
from  that  time  on,  scarcely  relented,  removed  them  from  their 
fellow-inhabitants  and  threw  them  back  within  themselves; 
their  own  national  memories  and  hopes  were  kept  awake  that 
much  the  more.  The  present  was  gloomy;  to  enter  into  and 
commingle  with  the  people  with  whom  they  now  resided, 
became  an  impossibility.  The  rulers  regarded  the  professors 
of  Judaism  as  a  separate  part  of  civil  society,  as  a  close 
community.  They  were  treated  as  such  a  one  and  had  to  feel 
themselves  so.  In  ancient  Rome,  that  great  world-empire, 
it  was  hardly  possible  that  one  tie  should  closely  bind  all  the 
various  countries  together;  each  one  retained  its  peculiarity 
within  the  loose  bond.  The  greater  part  of  the  Jews  had 
remained  in  Judea,  in  Palestine,  and  thus  under  pagan  Rome 
the  preservation  of  a  certain  amount  of  nationality  resulted 
of  itself.  In  the  later  Christian  time,  persecution  and  pres- 
sure increased,  and  the  repelling  forces  from  without  knitted 
the  individual  members  of  the  Jewish  confession  still  closer 
together,  and  thus  the  memories  of  the  past  assumed  quite 
naturally  the  colors  of  shining  ideals  and  the  hope  of  the 
future  could  consist  only  in  this,  that  therein  whatever  the 
past  appeared  to  have  been  would  reappear.  The  memories 
heightened  into  religious  veneration,  the  hopes  into  religious 
longing. 

The  mood  was  fed  through  the  whole  character  of  the 
approaching  Middle  Ages.  Pagan  Rome  was  verging  towards 
its  dissolution;  no  longer  was  fresh,  living  force  circulating 
into  its  far-off  members  which  were  the  component  parts  of 
the  large  body.  Judaism,  which  by  all  fidelity  to  its  own 
faith,  rapidly  enters  into  the  spirit  of  any  virile  nationality, 
did  not  find  such  a  one  to  which  it  could  join  itself.  While 
pagan  Rome  remained  without  influence  upon  the  formation 
of  Judaism  and  acted  only  repellent,  the  ruling  course  of  ideas 
of  the  Christian  world  which  took  possession  of  Rome^s 
heritage,  had  altogether  injurious  effects:  it  confirmed  and 
developed  an  oblique  tendency  existing  within  Judaism  of 


Character  of  the  Middle  Ages  223 

that  time,  by  making  that  tendency  the  ruling  one  within 
itself  and  for  the  whole  world.  With  the  rise  of  Christianity, 
the  history  of  the  world  was  actually  completed  for  the  Middle 
Ages ;  perfection  had  been  reached ;  further  development  was 
neither  ordered  nor  possible.  On  the  contrary,  to  lean  upon 
that  ancient  time,  to  carry  that  ancient  ideal  into  the  present, 
and  when  that  was  not  possible,  to  hope  for  a  future  which 
in  a  marvelous  way  would  yet  make  that  ideal  the  actuality, 
was  the  inmost  core  of  all  effort  of  the  Middle  Ages.  The 
present  was  ignored ;  it  was,  to  use  a  recent  form  of  expression, 
the  bad  fallen  reality.  It  existed,  but  was  unfit,  useless;  it 
appeared  degenerate  insomuch  as  it  was  not  the  counterpart 
of  the  ideal  which  shone  over  from  the  past,  insomuch  as  it 
tried  to  be  something  of  itself.  Thus  the  world  of  that  time 
had  no  present,  it  had  only  a  past  to  which  it  looked  up,  and 
a  future  for  which  it  waited.  To  create  by  their  own  powers 
of  the  time,  to  produce  new  formations  by  their  own  ability, 
that  was  wholly  outside  of  the  horizon  of  the  long  enduring 
Middle  Ages.  Past  and  present  played,  therefore,  into  each 
other  in  an  exceedingly  curious  manner;  the  past  times  were 
carried  along  in  the  frame  of  the  every-day  happenings  of  the 
present,  and  vice  versa.  With  such  views  the  Christian 
world  looked  back  upon  the  old  prophets  and  the  patriarchs; 
they  were  looked  upon  as  men  who  had  already  had  the  full 
belief  of  the  present,  who  had  been  full  of  the  same  longing 
that  was  felt  by  the  world  of  that  time ;  qualities  were  imputed 
to  them  that  were  now  considered  the  best  ones.  Even  the 
great  ancient  pagans,  as  far  as  they  were  known,  took  Chris- 
tian form  or  were  transfigured  into  wizards.  Of  historic 
development,  of  things  having  been  different  in  earlier  times, 
there  was  not  even  an  inkling  of  an  idea;  consequently,  they 
tried  to  bring  all  the  past  into  the  present  and  form  it  as  a 
shadow  into  the  present.  What  was  it  that  really  produced 
the  great  and  violent  struggle  in  the  Middle  Ages,  what  shows 
the  only  sign  of  life  moving  deeply  through  those  times?  The 
struggle  to  make  a  Christian-Roman  world  empire,  attempted 
in  two  different  ways,  and  just  that  difference  caused 
mighty  struggles  which,  after  all,  wrought  great  advantages 


224  Judaism  and  Its  History 

for  the  world,  but  sapped  its  best  forces  and  caused  splits 
and  division  of  nations,  from  which  the  present  still  suffers. 
In  a  certain  sense,  the  German  nation  was  the  normal  people 
of  the  Middle  Ages,  and  its  chief  did  not  strive  to  strengthen 
the  nation  within  itself,  to  soundly  form  by  its  own  healthy 
material,  to  make  a  close  junction  of  the  individual  members, 
but  he  attempted  to  present  the  succession  of  the  Roman 
Empire  in  Christian  form.  He  was  perfectly  satisfied  with 
a  pseudo-investiture,  with  an  empty,  formal  acknowledg- 
ment of  power  that  had  no  real  strength.  It  was  enough  if 
only  the  shadow  of  the  old  ideal  moved  in  the  present  across 
the  world's  stage,  if  only  the  semblance  appeared  that  the 
Roman  world-empire  still  existed.  On  the  spiritual  side  also, 
the  reality  of  the  Roman  Empire  was  striven  for,  and  it  was 
now  commanded  by  the  founder  of  Christianity.  If  he  him- 
self was  not  present,  his  shadow  was  to  rule,  he  was  to  be 
represented  by  his  vice-gerent.  Even  the  religious  idea 
needed  his  real  presence  at  the  communion  table,  he  had  to 
walk  now  as  then,  among  his  believers.  Whatever  else  was 
done  by  the  Middle  Ages  was  esteemed  ungodly;  the  present 
had  merit  only  if  it  was  leaning  upon  the  past.  For  the 
future,  nothing  new  was  hoped;  it  should  simply  set  up  the 
past,  perfect  in  all  its  particulars. 

Can  we  now  be  astonished  if  that  diseased  tendency  was 
also  nourished  within  Judaism?  Within  it  also,  memory  of 
the  past  and  hope  for  the  future  became  the  chief  principle 
of  life.  The  national,  which  without  this  had  its  food  by  the 
persecutions  from  without,  had  now  to  permeate  the  religious 
life,  the  present  was  to  be  represented  as  a  complete  picture 
of  the  past,  and  everything  that  had  its  root  in  the  state's 
existence  should  be  preserved,  even  when  the  conditions  for 
it  were  wholly  lacking;  whatever  had  been  inherited,  was 
esteemed  of  value,  without  examining  its  origin,  was  con- 
sidered as  law;  externals  grew  on  luxuriously  without  the 
sprout's  receiving  sap  from  the  inner  roots  of  the  present  life. 
They  lived  with  the  past  in  the  present,  they  imagined  the 
ancient  devotees  exactly  as  they  beheld  the  devotees  of  the 
time,  they  wrapped  the  patriarchs  into  such  masquerade  as 


Character  of  the  Middle  Ages  225 

if  those  worthies  had  practiced  all  rules  and  ordinances  down 
to  the  very  last  as  they  had  grown  up  later.  David  and 
Mephiboset  disputed  about  minor  legal  questions  with  all 
scholastic  seriousness,  even  Shem  and  Eber  had  arranged 
schools  exactly  like  those  existing  in  later  time.  Historic 
sense  was  lacking  and  the  different  times  were  mixed  in  motley 
naivety;  Laban  was  spoken  of  as  an  enemy  of  to-day,  Haman 
and  Amalek  in  like  manner;  Elijah  was  thought  to  be  con- 
stantly at  work  among  Israel,  as  present  at  the  reception  of 
every  boy  into  the  covenant  and  to  have  conversation  with 
the  teachers  in  the  schools  and  synagogs,  instructing  and 
sometimes  correcting  them,  often  appearing  in  lovely  manner 
as  friend  and  savior,  and  entering  every  year  into  every 
house  on  the  evening  when  the  memories  of  the  ancient 
delivery  from  Egyptian  bondage  were  renewed.  That 
delivery  was,  of  course,  an  event  of  to-day!  If  our  ancestors 
had  not  then  been  delivered  from  Egypt,  we  should  to-day 
be  subject  to  the  Egyptians;  that  was  repeated  year  by  year. 
Past  conditions  were  the  present  ones,  and  thus  it  is  natural 
that  the  present  ones  should  be  the  complete  representation 
of  the  past  ones;  they  strove  with  every  force  of  mind  and 
spirit  to  remove  out  of  the  present  and  to  belong  to  a  past 
which,  in  addition,  they  conceived  upside  down. 

That  is  a  strong  reverse  which  Judaism  of  the  Middle 
Ages  reveals  to  us.  It  fed  a  life  of  shadows  and  semblances, 
and  such  a  one  naturally  gives  occasion  for  the  most  various 
aberrations.  We  must  not  hide  that  reverse  if  we  want  to 
estimate  history  justly  and  without  bias,  if  we  want  to  com- 
prehend the  task  we  have  to  work  out  regarding  the  Middle 
Ages.  There  must  have  been  a  solid  sterling  kernel  alongside 
of  that  shadowy  reverse,  which  could  endure  under  the  most, 
various  formations  of  life,  under  the  hardest  pressure  of 
nearly  eighteen  centuries;  there  must  have  been  an  interior 
force  which  drove  its  sap  even  into  those  creepers.  Legalism 
could  never  have  preserved  religion  so  long;  religion  carried 
legalism.  Nationality  could  never  have  supplied  to  faith  its 
force ;  faith  quickened  the  quivering  manifestations  of  national 
life,  its  memories  and  hopes.     If  in  other  religions,  aberrations 


226  Judaism  and  Its  History 

have  been  preserved  for  a  long  time,  it  has  its  cause  in  quite 
different  conditions.  Where  rich,  full  life  courses  all  its 
forces,  when  all  saps  that  produce  and  nourish  the  planting, 
pour  into  one  channel,  it  is  natural  that  the  movement  endures, 
and  thus  all  the  stems  that  are  not  perfectly  strong  and  roots 
that  are  not  entirely  fresh  can  be  constantly  freshened  and 
receive  new  life.  But  when  broken  trunks,  like  Judaism, 
overgrown  with  creepers,  are  constantly  exposed  to  new 
windstorms  and  yet  keep  alive,  the  root  must  be  sound  and 
the  saps  must  be  healthy;  if  they  cannot,  in  gloomy  times, 
appear  in  full  beauty  and  noblest  development,  they  yet  have 
the  imperturable  force  of  self-preservation  which,  in  spite  of 
all  overgrowth  of  creepers  that  the  conditions  force  upon 
them,  does  not  let  them  perish. 

Therefore,  even  in  those  gloomy  and  difficult  times,  the 
genuine  ideas  of  Judaism  were  not  blotted  out  but  always 
enjoyed  further  cultivation.  We  find  the  same  men,  in  whom 
we  see  the  founders  of  what  we  now  call  rigid  legalism,  the 
representatives  of  the  most  sterling  truths  of  religion  and  of 
the  deepest  moral  principles.  Akiba  Ben  Joseph  especially 
stands  forth  in  that  period.  He  lived  at  the  time  of  the 
rising  under  Ben  Kosiba,  manifested  in  his  life  and  teaching 
ardent  zeal  for  the  preservation  of  Israel  in  its  inherited  form. 
He  believed  in  the  restoration  of  its  state  and  fought  for  it; 
he  carried  through  with  consistence  the  pharisaic  principles  in 
sharply  defined  externals,  and  contemporaries  as  well  as  pos- 
terity bow  before  him.  The  same  man  lays  down  principles 
that  reveal  a  deeper  comprehension  than  we  should  suppose 
from  the  author  of  those  external  ordinances.  God,  man,  and 
humanity,  are  presented  by  him  in  the  most  dignified  and 
sublime  manner.  He  bases  his  sayings  on  verses  of  Scripture, 
interprets  those  in  this  way,  as  was  the  custom  of  that  time. 
The  custom  had  its  foundation  in  the  desire  to  find  one's  own 
thoughts  complete  in  the  past,  designated  by  the  same  expres- 
sion now  in  use  for  it.  That  is  a  method  or  proceeding  which 
we  may  consider  lacking  independence  and  exegetically 
unjustifiable.  But  if  we  put  aside  the  desire  to  lean  upon 
the  past  and  consider  the  views  on  their  merits,  they  could 


Akiba  227 

not  now  be  expressed  better.  "In  the  image  of  God  created 
he  him"  (man),  says  the  Scripture.  Is  there  a  shape  of  God 
and  is  man  its  image?  By  no  means,  says  Akiba,  the  passage 
is  to  be  understood  in  this  way:  God  created  man  in  a 
definite  image,  in  an  excellent  shape;  far  be  it  that  we  should 
even  in  poetic  expression,  speak  of  an  image  of  God.  And 
again:  "And  the  Lord  God  said.  Behold,  the  man  is  become 
as  one  of  us  to  know  good  and  evil.**  How?  Has  man 
moved  into  the  sphere  of  divinity?  Should  God  say  that? 
Impossible.  The  sense  of  the  passage  is  quite  different,  says 
Akiba,  and  he  interprets  it:  Man  is  become  as  one  to  know 
good  and  evil  by  himself.  This  interpretation  is  rather  forced 
and  hardly  fits  into  the  context,  but  it  aims  to  remove  God 
beyond  corporeal  presentation  and  to  prevent  the  removal  of 
the  barrier  between  God  and  man.  "For  there  shall  no  man 
see  me  and  live.**  Is  there  only  the  death  penalty  against 
seeing  God,  can  any  man  see  God?  Is  that  possible?  Another 
misunderstanding,  says  Akiba.  The  passage  means:  No 
man  sees  me,  and  no  living  being,  not  the  angels,  not  the 
holy,  pure,  spirits.  Thus  Akiba  applies  all  the  forces  of  his 
mind  to  preserve  the  conception  of  the  spirituality  of  God 
in  its  purity. 

In  the  same  manner  he  presents  man  in  his  superiority. 
We  have  just  quoted  his  sayings  based  on  Scripture  verses: 
"He  created  man  in  a  definite  image,  in  an  excellent  shape** 
and  "man  is  become  as  one  to  know  good  and  evil  by  him- 
self.*' As  the  first  saying  designates  man  relative  to  his 
superiority  above  all  creatures,  so  the  second  accentuates  his 
conscience,  sharp  and  short.  Let  us  now  quote  an  inde- 
pendent saying  of  his:  "All  is  foreseen,  freedom  is  given.** 
These  two  sentences  are  put  together  which  are  the  basis  of  all 
religion;  Providence  on  the  one  side,  and  yet  on  the  other 
side  human  freedom  that  acts  of  its  own  free  will.  On  this 
metaphysical  problem  many  religions  have  been  wrecked. 
To  hold  fast  to  the  sublimity  and  perfection  of  God,  they 
pressed  man  deep  down  and  made  him  a  being  incapable  of 
acting  or  doing  by  himself.  No,  says  Akiba,  everything  is 
forseen,  but  yet  freedom  is  given.    And  while  the  former  is 


228  Judaism  and  Its  History 

assertion  of  deeper  knowledge  of  God,  the  latter  is  assertion 
of  true  human  piety.  United,  they  form  the  possibility  of 
all  religiousness;  united,  they  are  of  Judaism  the  basis  which 
must  never  be  shaken  and  has  never  been  shaken.  This 
capacity  of  man  to  determine  for  himself  with  full  freedom, 
and  therefore  to  elevate  himself,  to  strive  toward  perfection 
by  himself,  and  to  attain  it  by  honest  endeavor,  this  capacity 
Akiba  has  presented  in  pregnant  brevity  as  base  and  center 
of  Judaism,  and  Judaism  has  steadily  held  fast  to  it.  By 
that  it  has  preserved  the  unbroken  energy  with  which  it  bore 
and  ruled  the  sorrowful  life.  Through  its  greatly  inter- 
mingled history,  this  dignified  conception  of  man  runs  along 
as  the  guiding  line. 

In  recent  times  it  has  been  recognized  how  the  great  poet 
and  thinker  who  presented  to  us  the  struggle  of  the  different 
religions,  how  Lessing  in  "Nathan"  puts  up,  as  noble  repre- 
sentatives of  the  other  two  religions,  men  whose  entire  longing 
it  is  to  withdraw  from  human  activity.  The  friar  would  like 
to  avoid  all  intercourse  with  men,  and  the  dervish  would  flee 
out  of  the  world's  business  to  get  back  into  his  loneliness. 
On  the  contrary,  the  representative  of  Judaism  is  a  man  of 
the  world,  but  at  the  same  time  a  sage,  a  man  that  draws 
experience  out  of  life,  knows  it,  thoroughly  apprehends  its 
weaknesses  and  reverse  side,  but  who  still  looks  upon  them 
with  tolerance  and  kindness,  sees  in  every  human  being  a 
noble  foundation  and  nourishes  the  joyful  hope  of  being  able 
to  forward  his  development  from  that.  Did  Lessing  want  to 
glorify  Judaism  by  that  representation?  By  no  means,  but 
the  poet  in  his  genius  has  by  that  taken  a  deep  look  into  the 
essence  of  the  religions.  It  is  true,  other  religions  regard 
loneliness  as  the  flower  of  all  piety;  they  praise  the  withdrawal 
from  human  society,  glorify  celibacy  and  silent  contempla- 
tion. The  friar  pronounces  it  with  touching  candor:  "A 
hundred  times  a  day  I  long  to  be  on  Tabor,"  and  the  hot- 
blooded  dervish  in  his  more  violent  manner  says,  *'At  the 
Ganges,  at  the  Ganges  alone,  are  men" — in  both  religions, 
fleeing  out  of  the  world  is  praised  as  true  religiousness.  In 
contrast  to  that,  energetic  endeavor  in  the  world,  recognition 


Force  of  Judaism  229 

of  humanity,  is  the  basis  of  Judaism.  A  Nazarite  was  looked 
upon  as  a  sinner  because  he  abstained  from  wine;  who  under- 
goes fasting  without  good  reason  is  also  adjudged  a  sinner 
because  he  inflicts  upon  himself  unjustifiable  burdens  and 
privations  which  are  not  approved  by  God.  Fleeing  out  of 
the  world  would  really  have  been  natural  to  Judaism  in  view 
of  its  suffering  and  heavy  trials;  hermit's  brooding  ought  to 
have  made  its  appearance,  and  yet  such  doings  were  never 
recognized  as  worthy  action.  On  the  contrary,  separation 
from  society  was  reproved,  labor  in  humanity,  recognition  of 
the  goodness  of  God  in  nature  and  in  the  human  world  were 
at  all  times  recognized  and  praised  as  the  innermost  kernel, 
as  the  foundation  of  all  moral  will  and  endeavor. 


III. 

Akiba,  Interpretation  of  the  Scriptures, 
Mishnah,  Babylonian  Gemara. 

Let  us  continue  the  view  of  the  period.  Akiba,  as  we 
have  observed,  one  of  the  foremost  carriers  of  the  tendency 
of  that  time  (first  half  of  the  second  century)  has  in  brief 
words  pronounced  great  eternal  truths;  he  has  presented  God 
in  pure  spirituality  and  man  in  his  capacity  and  task  to 
develop  out  of  himself  the  noblest  product.  Let  us  try  to 
complete  that  representation  by  a  few  illustrations.  Besides 
God  and  man  separately,  the  question  arises  as  to  man 
within  mankind,  as  to  the  relation  of  the  individual  within 
society.  This  question  also,  Akiba,  in  conjunction  with  his 
contemporaries,  answers  for  us.  Already  the  quoted  saying 
of  the  excellent  shape  of  man  gives  us  in  the  form  of  its 
expression,  sufficient  guidance.  It  is,  so  the  words  run,  a 
great  preference  for  man  to  have  been  created  in  excellent 
shape.  By  that  it  is  announced  that  man  in  general,  not  a 
separate  class  of  men,  not  man  under  certain  conditions,  of 
a  certain  faith,  the  individual  of  an  exclusive  people,  alone 
possesses  that  excellency,  but  man  in  general,  all  men.  To 
leave  no  doubt  about  that  meaning,  he  continues:  For 
Israel,  it  is  an  excellency  that  they  have  recognized  the 
fatherhood  of  God  and  are  designated  as  God's  children; 
what  he  said  earlier  of  men  and  his  high  excellence,  he  holds 
to  under  all  forms  and  conditions.  And  it  corresponds  to  it, 
if  he  repeats  the  words  of  Hillel  and  pronounces:  The  com- 
prehensive great  principle  of  the  law  is,  Love  thy  neighbor 
as  thyself.  In  the  most  perfect  agreement  with  that,  is  the 
doctrine  of  a  little  earlier  contemporary  of  Akiba,  Joshua  Ben 
Chanania,  who  in  general  is  most  like  Akiba.  In  contra- 
diction to  some  other  teachers,  he  quotes  the  verse  of  Psalms: 


Akiba,  Interpretation  of  the  Scriptures       231 

The  wicked  shall  be  turned  into  hell,  and  all  the  nations  that 
forget  God;  and  interprets,  Only  those  that  forget  God  are 
turned  into  hell,  but  not  any  that  think  of  God;  all — those 
outside  of  Israel  as  well — who  harbor  a  divine  idea,  who  strive 
toward  higher,  nobler  development,  even  if  in  error  now  and 
then,  who  want  to  lift  themselves  toward  God  by  honest 
endeavor,  to  all  of  them  is  due  a  share  in  eternal  life,  as  he 
expresses  it.  That  is  a  great  thought  which  occurs  here  in 
briefest  form,  according  to  the  method  peculiar  to  the  time, 
based  upon  a  verse  of  the  bible  and  without  larger  develop- 
ment of  its  contents,  but  which  is  of  great  depth  and  was  for 
that  period  and  for  the  long  centuries  thereafter,  the  fountain 
of  richest  and  truly  religious  stimulation.  At  a  time  in  which 
Judaism  was  forced,  in  order  to  defend  itself  against  exterior 
influences,  into  exclusiveness,  and  austerely  carried  it  through, 
at  the  selfsame  time,  it  decidedly  rejected  by  that  doctrine, 
all  one-sided  narrowness  which  prevailed  so  mightily  on  the 
outside.  It  preserves  to  itself  the  recognition  of  all  that  is 
human,  never  lets  go  of  the  guiding  line  by  which  it  joins  the 
tie  of  peace  with  all  humanity.  We  must  apprehend  this 
doctrine  so  much  the  more  according  to  its  full  importance 
and  recognize  the  indestructibility  of  the  live  Jewish  religious- 
ness, the  more  it  seems  to  be  in  contradiction  with  the  entire 
attitude  and  the  efforts  of  the  time.  And  this  doctrine  did 
not  remain  unnoticed;  it  became  valid  doctrine  for  all  time 
in  Judaism,  even  if  the  rigor  from  without,  did  not  let  it 
attain  to  its  complete  consequences,  yet  through  all  periods 
sounded  the  undisputed  doctrine:  The  pious  of  all  nations 
and  all  religions  have  a  share  in  eternal  life. 

As  to  the  position  of  the  individual  in  society,  sayings 
have  come  down  to  us  from  that  time,  which  bear  witness  of 
the  deep  insight  into  the  nature  of  man  and  his  task.  Every- 
one has  value  who  carries  within  himself  endeavor  toward 
perfection,  who  accepts  God's  law  and  develops  accordingly; 
he  is  measured  by  that,  not  according  to  position  and  rank. 
There  are  three  crowns :  the  crown  of  government,  the  crown 
of  priesthood,  and  the  crown  of  the  knowledge  of  the  law; 
yet  they  are  excelled  by  the  crown  of  a  good  name.     In  every 


232  Judaism  and  Its  History 

condition  of  life,  only  the  faithful  doing  of  duty  which  merits 
good  repute,  is  the  true  crown.  Government  and  priesthood 
are  gifts  of  birth ;  knowledge  of  God's  law  can  be  acquired  by 
everybody,  and  with  it  he  grasps  the  finest  crown,  puts  it  on 
his  head,  and  thereby  attains  true  nobility.  Already,  at  its 
first  formation,  Phariseeism  had  opposed  priestly  nobility, 
and  all  externals  resting  on  office  and  birth;  the  value  of 
learning  and  of  science,  as  it  was  then  understood,  the  value 
of  what  a  man  develops  under  all  conditions,  was  put  to  the 
front.  Akiba,  like  Hillel,  was  a  man  of  the  people,  not  of  a 
higher  rank,  not  endowed  with  inherited,  unearned  dignity; 
but  the  plain  scholar,  risen  to  the  greatest  importance  in 
Israel,  he  stands  as  the  hero  of  his  time,  and  the  builder  for 
all  times.  In  this,  too,  lies  an  energy  of  Judaism,  which  kept 
it  fresh  through  the  long  period.  It  contained  many  a  germ 
which,  if  it  had  belonged  to  its  spiritual  essence,  must  have 
necessarily  developed  and  led  to  hierarchy.  That  this  was  not 
the  case,  proves  that  the  spirit  of  liberty  within  it  was  too 
powerful  for  such  attempts  to  succeed,  even  when  they  had 
their  historic  connecting  links  and  points  of  departure. 
Induction  into  office  by  laying  on  of  hands  as  sign  of  trans- 
ference of  spiritual  dignity  which  in  another  religion  became 
out-and-out  endowment  with  the  holy  ghost,  dates  back  into 
Judaism.  Moses  inducts  Joshua  into  office  in  that  manner. 
Yet,  such  induction  never  became  in  Israel  a  priestly  one  and 
was  never  considered  to  raised  man  to  higher  power.  It  re- 
mained an  expression  of  acknowledgment  of  attained  ability. 
It  bestows  the  ornament  of  science,  not  the  scepter  of  domin- 
ion; it  was  a  testimony  of  the  acquisition  of  scholarship,  not 
a  magical  consecration  and  elevation.  Therefore,  at  that 
time,  as  in  all  times,  the  most  modest  scholar  without  position 
or  office,  was  esteemed  in  his  circle  just  as  much  as  another 
who  had  attained  high  position  and  office.  This  recognition 
of  the  love  of  the  spirit  and  of  the  power  of  knowledge  gave 
to  Judaism  strength  and  freshness. 

Such  principles,  as  we  have  learned  to  know  them  from 
that  time,  from  a  time  in  which  Judaism  was  driven  into 
externalism  and  exclusiveness,  remained  the  living  force  that 


Akiba,  Interpretation  of  the  Scriptures       233 

again  gave  even  to  the  hulls  some  spirituality,  and  this 
endowed  them  with  endurance;  while  on  the  other  side,  those 
hulls  were  necessary  to  guard  the  innermost  kernel  of  Judaism 
from  injuries  which  threatened  it  in  such  a  terrible  manner 
from  that  time  on.  Indeed,  the  conditions  of  the  time 
demanded  a  tighter  closing  of  ranks,  a  tangible  external  band, 
because  old  ties  had  been  broken.  To  obtain  a  correct 
understanding  of  how  this  band  was  woven,  which  stretched 
around  the  whole  life,  to  be  able  to  correctly  estimate  the 
remarkable  structure  which  then  arose,  we  must  present  yet  a 
few  complementary  facts  which  introduce  us  into  the  mental 
tendency  that  remained  ruling  within  Judaism  for  a  long  time. 
Already  when  the  exiles  had  returned  from  Babylon  to 
restore  the  state  and  attempted  to  rehabilitate  the  Temple, 
there  had  a  certain  antiquarian  endeavor  come  back  along- 
side of  the  quick  and  fresh  spirit  which  they  had  preserved 
from  the  time  of  the  old  prophets,  and  which  had  become 
their  real  energy  for  overcoming  all  paganism.  That  anti- 
quarian sentiment  had  prevailed  in  all  arrangements.  While 
yet  Jeremiah,  living  about  the  time  of  the  destruction  of  the 
first  Temple,  announced:  "  I  will  put  my  law  in  their  inward 
parts  and  write  it  in  their  hearts;"  while  he,  like  all  genuine 
prophets,  put  the  emphasis  upon  the  point  that  the  spirit 
should  rule,  and  not  the  letter,  that  not  the  written  word  but 
the  live  inner  meaning  should  become  the  measure  for  thought 
and  action,  at  the  founding  of  the  second  Temple,  we  con- 
stantly meet  the  phrase,  "and  they  found  written"  On  all 
occasions,  the  books,  accepted  as  written  in  godly  spirit 
during  Israel's  early  ages,  were  consulted  about  their 
opinions,  and  even  opinions  which  were  but  temporary 
effusions  arisen  out  of  the  conditions  of  a  definite  period, 
prevailed  as  general  ordinances,  valid  for  all  eternity.  It 
was  not  easy  to  make  up  the  mind  to  admit  the  necessity 
for  development  and  real,  accomplished  transformation. 
The  spirit  of  tradition,  which  is  nothing  else  than  the 
creative  instinct  for  further  development,  was  at  hand 
and  the  stream  of  life  ran  unconsciously  through  the  whole 
and  did  the  transforming — but  to  pronounce  with  full  decis- 


234  Judaism  and  Its  History 

ion  that  a  new  time  had  arrived  which  must  grow  new  pro- 
ducts out  of  the  old,  energetic  spirit,  for  such  a  decided 
declaration  of  their  majority  they  were  not  ready.  Even 
when  Phariseeism  arose  against  the  priestly  usurpations  of 
the  Sadducees,  when  it  battled  for  the  right  of  practical  life 
and  the  vigorous  body  of  the  people,  its  importance  against 
the  arrogance  of  those  who  made  regulations  for  the  people 
as  officers  of  the  sacrificial  service  and  the  written  law, 
it  did  not  at  first  know  how  to  give  to  its  sound  conviction 
and  energy  any  other  expression,  and  to  apply  for  their  pre- 
sentation any  other  remedy  than  to  transfer  the  letter  of  the 
law  to  themselves  as  well  as  to  the  priests,  that  it  wrapped  the 
whole  people  in  priestly  vestment  and  adjudged  every  possible 
priestly  thing  to  them,  so  that  they  were  more  cramped, 
notwithstanding  the  liberal,  free  thought,  out  of  which  the 
resistance  had  come.  In  the  later  time,  too,  when  mainly 
through  Hillel,  a  free  sentiment  penetrated  still  farther,  the 
endeavor  was  always  present  to  compound  with  the  letter  as 
much  as  possible.  That  something  else  was  ordained  in  the 
Scripture  than  that  which  prevailed  in  the  present — to  admit 
that,  courage  was  lacking.  They  sought  rather  to  expound 
one  thing  out  and  interpret  another  into  it,  to  develop  some- 
thing different;  in  short,  they  wanted  to  carry  the  entire 
present  into  the  past  in  order  to  attain  the  ease  of  mind  of 
being  really  in  accord  with  the  past. 

Such  action  was  yet  easier  in  the  time  of  the  second 
Temple.  With  the  great  political  and  religious  congruence 
existing  in  those  older  conditions,  transformations  flowed  in 
more  unnoticed ;  the  text  of  the  old  Scriptures  was  not  as  yet 
fixed  and  it  was  in  parts  treated  very  much  at  the  pleasure  of 
the  copyist,  never  shrinking  from  making  many  changes,  in 
the  belief  that  it  must  always  have  read  that  way,  since  it 
could  not  be  imagined  to  have  been  diff'erently  written 
according  to  then  present  views.  The  peculiarities  of  the 
Hebrew  language,  like  those  of  the  Semitic  sister-languages, 
greatly  favored  such  a  change  in  the  interpretation.  As  is 
well  known,  the  Hebrew  has  in  its  writing,  in  the  cold  pre- 
sentation by  letters,  only  consonants — the  mere  skeleton  of 


Akiba,  Interpretation  of  the  Scriptures       235 

the  idea,  as  it  were — which  receives  its  actual  life  only  from 
the  various  pronunciations.  According  to  the  change  in  the 
unwritten  vowels,  sense,  meaning,  and  importance  vary 
greatly.  Thus  it  was  very  easy  at  that  time,  when  the  vowels 
had  not  been  written  (for  only  much  later  they  came  to  be 
directly  indicated  by  little  marks  and  points),  at  that  time, 
when  all  punctuation  was  lacking,  it  was  very  easy  to  give 
new  meaning  to  the  text  by  other  vocalization  and  different 
punctuation,  joining  or  separating  words  and  phrases.  Such 
continued  even  when  the  efforts  were  made  to  fix  the  meaning 
more  exact  by  vocalization  and  punctuation,  and  thus  they 
have  gained  lasting  shape  in  our  present  text  of  the  bible. 
In  that  way,  there  was  in  that  time  a  peculiar  identification 
of  one's  own  conception  with  the  written  word,  a  mutual 
accommodation,  a  looking  up  of  one's  own  in  the  book  which 
was  adjudged  to  have  exclusive  validity  in  all  its  particulars, 
and  then  again  a  half-conscious  carrying  into  it  and  soft 
bending  of  its  general  rules.  With  all  veneration  for  the 
standard  book,  they  proceeded  with  a  certain  degree  of 
freedom;  a  people's  life  existed,  which  formed  its  wants  and 
peculiarities  independently,  in  which  the  conditions  of  living 
enforced  their  claims.  Separate  books  were  spoken  of  with 
boldness,  they  were  rejected,  they  were  accepted,  according 
to  the  view  held  of  them,  according  to  the  propriety  of  con- 
viction found  in  them.  This  determination  of  the  inner 
consciousness  would  surely  have  matured  its  fruits  with  a 
continued  free  nationality. 

But  now  the  time  of  ruin  came.  The  tie  was  dissolved; 
if  the  members  of  this  faith  were  to  be  kept  together  while 
they  were  scattered  into  the  different  countries,  surrendering 
the  hope  of  being  soon  again  gathered;  if  they  were  not  to 
totally  fall  apart,  a  new  solid  band  had  to  be  thrown  around 
them  and  the  spirit  had  to  receive  a  lasting  form  by  which 
it  could  be  recognized.  Yet  the  form  into  which  it  had 
already  moulded  itself  was  held  to  be  the  one  authorized  and 
binding  for  all  time ;  it  was  the  expression  of  the  people  to  be 
preserved,  and  had  to  be  kept  with  it.  They  believed  that 
they  must  cling  to  the  past  in  all  its  peculiarities.     To  ask 


236  Judaism  and  Its  History 

for  reasons,  for  occasions  that  might  have  produced  this  or 
that  regulation,  to  measure  them  by  the  spirit  within  them — 
that  seemed  a  wicked  beginning,  a  presumptuous  undertak- 
ing. Independence  of  one's  own  conviction  could  now  no 
longer  be  permitted  to  prevail  over  the  letter  of  the  Scripture. 
Proceeding  freely  with  the  text,  as  had  been  the  habit,  could 
no  longer  be  permitted,  if  everything  was  not  to  be  made 
uncertain  with  the  dismemberment  of  the  national  life. 
Accordingly,  we  then  hear  for  the  first  time  the  acceptance 
as  a  firm  principle  (which  on  the  one  side  became  scientifically 
justified  and  preventing  arbitrary  action,  had  its  favorable 
influence,  but  on  the  other  side  became  a  great  hindrance): 
The  traditional  pronunciation — that  is,  the  vocalization  of 
the  text,  which  was  then  not  written  but  was  customary  in 
definite  form — is  a  fence  to  the  law;  it  must  remain  as  it  is 
now  fixed  and  traditionally  delivered  to  us;  it  can  no  longer 
be  permitted  that  anybody  should  change  it  according  to  his 
own  views. 

Nothing  should  now  be  different  from  what  the  present 
letter  of  the  Scripture  presented,  and  nothing  outside  of  it. 
But  there  were  so  many  transformations  and  additions  in  use? 
That  those  were  actually  transformations  and  additions, 
could  not  be  admitted.  Clinging  to  the  letter,  they  tried  to 
interpret  it  as  containing  everything,  all  was  to  have  existed 
as  valid  from  the  beginning,  even  if  it  was  not  found  in  the 
Scriptures;  all  should  not  be  simply  tradition  as  born  out  of 
the  original  spirit  of  the  people  and  fitted  to  the  conditions, 
but  was  to  have  existed  in  part  by  having  been  orally  given 
in  all  its  particulars,  with  the  written  law,  to  Moses,  and  in 
part  by  being  indicated  and  contained  in  the  Scriptures 
according  to  an  interpretation  which  was  regarded  as  per- 
fectly justified  with  a  divine  book  that  chooses  no  superfluous 
word,  no  curious  form,  no  irregularity,  for  nothing.  From 
such  seeming  indications  it  was  believed  the  regulations  that 
varied  from  the  natural  meaning,  and  the  ordinances  that 
were  outside  of  it,  could  be  sufficiently  proved.  And  thus  an 
exceedingly  dangerous  method  of  interpretation  was  formed, 
which  at  first  simply  tried  to  bring  the  actual  existing  into 


Akiba,  Interpretation  of  the  Scriptures       237 

harmony  with  the  received  text,  but  which,  very  soon  in 
luxurious  growth,  created  many  a  new  regulation.  Akiba  and 
his  contemporaries  are  patterns  in  this  proceeding.  Because 
Akiba  demonstrated  such  an  indication  for  ordinances  which, 
without  being  given  in  the  Scriptures,  had  become  firmly 
established,  but  the  validity  of  which  was  doubted  by  earlier 
teachers  because  they  could  not  find  any  warrant  for  them 
in  the  written  word — because  Akiba  demonstrated  such  an 
indication  for  them,  he  was  glorified  as  a  skillful  scholar,  as  a 
man  who  had  laid  new  and  irremovable  foundations  for 
Judaism  in  its  then  existing  form. 

We  have  noticed  a  few  attempts  in  which  Akiba  ex- 
pounded verses  in  accordance  with  his  conviction,  going  far 
away  from  the  natural  meaning.  Another  sample  may 
suffice  to  mark  the  whole  proceeding.  It  is  a  peculiarity  of 
the  Hebrew  language  that  it  sometimes  indicates  the  objec- 
tive case  simply  by  the  position  of  the  noun  in  the  sentence 
and  sometimes  by  the  addition  of  the  little  word  "eth." 
That  was  sufficient  occasion  for  those  times  to  look  for  a 
particular  reason  why  that  little  word  or  particle  was  used 
in  some  passages,  although  it  might  just  as  well  have  been 
absent,  and  to  ask  for  indications  in  its  apparently  super- 
fluous presence.  That  word,  but  derived  from  a  different 
root,  has  the  meaning  "with."  And  that  was  enough  for 
that  school  to  expound  it  accordingly  in  that  sense  and  call 
it  "with"  in  every  passage  where  it  occurs.  The  proceeding 
grew  to  such  an  extent  that  the  interpretation  was  not 
limited  to  discussion  of  the  laws  in  the  schools,  but  was 
carried  into  the  bible  translations.  The  want  was  felt  for  a 
new  translation  for  the  Jews  who  spoke  the  Greek  language 
only.  The  ancient  Greek  septuagint  version  which  represented 
the  old  position  and  had  been  made  with  great  freedom,  had  lost 
its  former  authority,  and  thus  several  new  Greek  translations 
arose.  Among  them,  the  one  of  Aquila,  a  contemporary  of 
Akiba,  especially  wanted  to  render  the  new  position  in  full, 
and  he  is  for  that  treated  with  great  acknowledgment.  It 
clings  to  the  letter  and  in  that  way  translates  everywhere 
where  that  little  word  occurs  as  sign  of  the  objective  case  as 


238  Judaism  and  Its  History 

if  "with'*  were  in  the  text;  it  is  rendered  by  the  Greek  "syn" 
although  it  does  not  fit  into  the  connection  and  is  repugnant 
to  grammatical  rules  of  the  Greek  language.  That  proceed- 
ing governed  the  time,  and  as  it  faces  us  in  that  translation, 
in  the  same  way  it  was  followed  up  by  the  teachers  of  the 
Mishnah — the  name  of  the  teachers  of  the  law  at  that  time — 
they  expounded  every  sentence  in  which  the  little  word  was, 
as  if  something  else  was  included.  In  the  beginning,  God 
created  *'the"  heavens  and  "the"  earth;  here  too,  the  ob- 
jective case  is  indicated  by  "eth.**  Thence  their  interpre- 
tation: "the"  heavens,  ''with  the"  heavens,  all  its  hosts 
were  created;  "the"  earth,  ''with  the"  earth  everything 
produced  that  moves  and  grows  upon  it.  Thus  it  is  said  of 
a  contemporary  of  Akiba,  Simon,  or  Nehemiah  the  Amsonite, 
that  he  had  successfully  found  interpretations  for  all  passages 
with  that  sign  of  the  objective  case,  that  he  in  fact  found  the 
mission  of  his  life  in  that  work.  But  he  came  across  one 
passage  at  which  he  shied:  "Thou  shalt  fear  the  Lord  thy 
God;"  here  also  the  objective  case  is  indicated  by  that  par- 
ticle. That  besides  the  Lord,  others  should  be  given  like 
fear,  that  another  being  should  be  named  as  on  a  certain 
equality  with  God,  that  he  did  not  dare  to  pronounce,  and 
he  gave  up  any  attempt  at  interpretation.  Asked  for  the 
reason  why,  after  so  many  interpretations,  he  abstained  from 
finding  one  here,  he  said,  "As  I  hope  to  receive  reward  for 
the  interpretations  which  I  made,  so  I  hope  to  receive  reward 
for  abstaining  from  it  in  this  passage."  A  fine  sense  for 
truth!  It  did  not  suffice  to  Akiba,  he  had  more  courage  and 
was  more  consistent;  he  found  an  interpretation:  "Besides 
God,  you  shall  honor  the  teachers  of  His  law." 

This  example  may  be  sufficient  to  show  with  what  anxiety 
the  letter  was  observed  on  the  one  side,  and  how  arbitrarily 
it  was  squeezed  and  pressed  into  service  on  the  other  side  in 
order  to  interpret  the  most  various  things  out  of  it.  That 
anxious  clamping  and  cramping  at  a  given  word  was  a  sad 
necessity,  if  all  was  not  to  fall  apart.  The  spirit  could  not 
reveal  itself  in  its  freedom.  It  could  not  in  a  fluid  and 
esoteric  manner  have  resisted  a  world  that  met  it  with  rude- 


MiSHNAH  239 

ness  and  violence;  it  needed  a  hard,  surrounding  matter,  a 
protecting  hull,  a  sheltering  roof,  under  which  the  scattered 
members  got  closer  together.  We  learn  about  Akiba  that  he 
traveled  far  about,  but  we  do  not  exactly  know  for  what 
purpose.  Yet  it  can  hardly  be  doubted  that  in  those  journeys 
he  did  not  omit  to  cement  together  the  scattered  members 
in  the  various  countries,  so  that  they  remained  parts  of  a 
whole.  That  endeavor  was  a  leading  principle  with  more  or 
less  clear  consciousness.  In  Palestine,  the  old  ties  were 
dissolved,  a  new  one  was  to  get  around  them.  Indeed,  it 
gradually  became  a  very  coarse  rope,  but  it  answered  the 
purpose;  it  held  fast  together  until  the  time  comes  when  the 
shell  may  be  burst,  and  the  mind  and  spirit  can  unfold  freely. 
The  new  movement  with  seeming  convulsive  clinging  to 
the  old  things,  effected  a  complete  inner  transformation  and 
was  decisively  pressing  to  a  close.  And  thus  we  meet,  a 
short  time  thereafter,  a  new  book  worked  out  of  that  move- 
ment. It  is  the  Mishnah.  The  word  means  "repetition," 
but  is  intended  for  "doctrine."  Everything  in  it  was  then 
styled  repetition;  nothing  appeared  new,  everything  had  to 
appear  as  simply  repeated  and  renewed  injunction  of  what 
the  ancient  time  had  given  long  ago.  What  the  old  law,  so 
they  persuaded  themselves,  had  laid  down  in  short  words,  in 
dim  indications,  that  was  here  repeated,  but  expanded  more 
definitely  and  more  extensively.  That  Mishnah  was  closed 
by  Rabbi  Juda  the  Prince  about  sixty  years  after  Akiba. 
Akiba  himself  appears  to  have  started  one,  but  it  came  to  a 
close  only  then.  It  can  not  be  our  task  here  to  enter  into  the 
particulars  of  it,  but  the  spirit  that  rules  in  it  is  known  by 
the  matter  accepted  and  the  manner  in  which  the  material 
is  arranged.  It  is  in  six  divisions.  It  begins  with  the  divine 
service  and  almost  leads  to  the  belief  that  this  amounts  to  a 
demonstration,  the  presentation  of  the  great  treasure  that 
had  been  gained,  because  divine  service  is  the  real  and  lasting 
conquest  of  Pharisaic  Judaism  against  the  priesthood.  Priest- 
hood is  on  the  whole  neglected  and  rather  ignored  in  the 
Mishnah.  And  yet  one-half  of  it  is  filled  with  instruction 
about  things  that  had  already  been  removed  out  of  the 


240  Judaism  and  Its  History 

present.  Besides  the  still-valid  ordinances  about  festivals, 
marriage  relations,  civil  law  matters,  and  the  like,  it  treats 
of  regulations  about  the  soil,  the  dues  or  taxes  to  be  paid 
from  the  crops,  about  sacrifices,  cleanness  and  uncleanness. 
Those  matters  fill  the  greater  part  of  the  book,  matters  which 
had  disappeared  out  of  practical  life  and  had  no  longer 
validity  in  the  present,  but  were  a  tradition  of  the  past. 
But  they  lived  in  the  past  and  presented  it. 

That  was  the  last  incisive  action  which  affected  Judaism 
from  Palestine.  That  country  did  not  wholly  rest  during  the 
coming  centuries,  forced  a  few  sprouts,  but  they  were  without 
particular  creative  force  and  did  not  attain  to  governing  influ- 
ence upon  the  remaining  Jewish  world.  The  soil  of  Palestine 
had  become  unstable  and  slippery  for  Israel  and  his  faith. 
The  entire  Roman  empire  no  longer  offered  a  safe  spot  for 
him.  But  a  new  country  opened  to  him,  or  rather,  a  territory 
came  again  into  the  foreground  that  had  once  before  been  a 
refuge  for  Israel  and  in  which  Jewish  seed  had  once  before 
come  up  abundantly.  Immediately  after  Rabbi  Juda  the 
Prince — that  is,  after  the  close  of  the  Mishnah  at  the  begin- 
ning of  the  third  century — we  find  a  large  number  of  schools 
in  Babylonia,  in  the  country  whither  the  scattered  remmants 
of  the  first  Temple  had  been  conducted,  where  they  were  still 
germinating  and  growing,  in  the  country  whence  Ezra  had 
arisen,  who  undertook  the  restoration  of  the  second  common- 
wealth, and  from  which  also  Hillel,  another  rejuvenator  of 
Judaism,  had  emigrated  into  Palestine  to  apply  his  fresh  force 
to  its  revival.  There  we  meet  fast  flourishing  schools  at 
Nehardea,  Sora,  Pumbeditha,  and  in  many  other  places, 
schools  that  did  not  teach  what  they  had  received  only,  in 
the  manner  as  it  was  wretchedly  carried  on  yet  for  awhile  in 
Palestine,  but  which  took  hold  of  their  task  with  a  fresh  and 
live  spirit.  Heretofore  we  have  mentioned  the  important 
words  pronounced  by  a  teacher  there:  He  that  emigrates 
from  Babylonia  to  Palestine,  commits  a  sin  and  transgresses 
God's  command.  Palestine,  which  was  regarded  as  the  holy 
land,  whose  soil  was  venerated  as  a  holy  one,  which  was 
looked  upon  as  endowed  with  a  certain  sanctity — to  migrate 


The  Babylonian  Schools  241 

into  that  land  from  Babylonia  should  be  prohibited?  They 
felt  the  new  spirit  within  themselves,  felt  themselves  at  home 
in  a  vigorous  country  in  which  endeavor  could  develop 
untrammeled.  Here  was  the  only  empire  into  which  the 
power  of  the  Romans  did  not  reach;  the  rough  hand  of  the 
Parthians  had  opened  a  refuge  for  the  Jews  the  like  of  which 
they  hardly  found  in  the  remaining  civilized  world  of  that 
time.  There  were  some  romantics  who  looked  toward 
Palestine  with  fond  longing.  It  is  told  of  such  a  one  that  he 
secretly  withdrew  from  his  teacher  and  fasted  forty  days,  in 
order  to  forget  the  fresh  manner  and  doctrine  of  Babylon  and 
get  used  to  the  more  sober  and  stunted  ways  of  Palestine; 
fast  days  were  scarcely  necessary  for  him,  because  his  desire 
indicates  that  the  right  spirit  had  departed  from  him.  Bui 
those  were  exceptions,  few  and  far  between.  The  fresh  spiri*- 
which  moved  about  there,  penetrated  the  scholars  and 
invigorated  them. 

At  any  rate,  life  was  not  outside  of  the  present.  Many 
a  thing  was  felt  missing,  many  earnest  hopes  had  to  be  deferred 
to  a  distant  future,  yet  they  did  not  so  completely  efface  the 
present  as  it  had  become  the  custom  on  leaving  Palestine, 
While  in  that  country  they  dreamed  themselves  into  the  pasi 
and  could  picture  the  future  only  in  order  to  restore  the  past 
in  ideal  form,  a  future  which  could  not  grow  out  of  the  natural 
course  of  development,  they  had  in  Babylonia  a  healthier 
realism.  Between  this  world  and  the  days  of  the  Messiah, 
said  a  teacher  there,  there  is  no  further  difference  than  the 
pressure  of  the  nations;  the  world  will  go  on,  the  pressure  only 
will  cease;  it  is  the  same  development,  the  same  order  of  the 
state,  only  freedom  enters  with  her  reviving  breath.  While 
they  in  Palestine  regarded  the  entire  government  of  the  time, 
as  it  ruled  outside  of  Israel  and  pressed  upon  it,  as  illegitimate; 
while  they  recognized  no  verdict  coming  from  that  govern- 
ment machinery  as  legal  because  emanating  from  an  illegiti- 
mate power  and  even  put  up  as  doctrine  that  it  was  only 
permissible  to  ask  a  Jewish  court  for  a  verdict  and  that  any 
other  should  be  rejected,  even  if  the  court  decided  according 
to  the  same  principles:  they  taught  in  Babylonia  that  the 


242  Judaism  and  Its  History 

law  of  the  state,  because  founded  on  legitimate  principles,  was 
effective  and  legitimate  and  had  religious  validity.  Such 
thoughts  flow  from  a  view  which  adjudges  to  the  present  its 
right  and  knows  how  to  esteem  it.  Sayings  along  such  lines 
are  reported  chiefly  of  a  teacher  Samuel,  and  he  is  also  de- 
scribed as  a  patron  of  science.  He  is  said  to  have  been  a 
physician,  and  learned  in  mathematics  and  astronomy.  To 
him  is  attributed  the  saying:  "The  paths  of  the  heavens  are 
as  familiar  to  me  as  the  streets  of  Nehardea."  We  do  not 
want  to  take  that  too  literally  and  examine  into  the  exact 
truth  of  the  statement,  but  it  shows  to  us  at  any  rate,  that 
science  was  studied  there,  and  if  that  is  especially  true  of 
astronomy,  the  reason  is  in  its  close  connection  with  the  fixing 
of  the  festivals. 

For  here  again  we  meet  a  point  which  reveals  the  inde- 
pendence of  Babylonia  in  a  noteworthy  manner.  To  keep 
the  festivals  according  to  their  traditionally-fixed  time,  is 
something  upon  which  every  religious  association  places  great 
importance.  Many  controversies  were  carried  on  in  the  early 
Christian  times  about  the  day  on  which  Easter  should  be 
celebrated,  one  side  insisting  on  the  fifteenth  day  of  Nissan, 
and  the  other  side  on  the  following  Sunday.  Great  schisms 
followed  out  of  it,  and  at  the  most  various  periods  the  dispute 
about  the  celebration  of  holidays  has  separated  more  than 
inner  differences.  In  Israel,  it  was  formerly  the  custom  to 
send  messengers  out  upon  the  high  mountains  to  look  for  the 
new  moon,  and  then  when  its  appearance  had  been  proven 
by  their  testimony,  the  beginning  of  the  month,  and  accord- 
ingly the  festivals  occurring  therein,  were  fixed  by  the  courts, 
and  runners  of  the  court  announced  the  decision  to  the 
inhabitants  all  around.  The  influence  of  Palestine  became 
weaker,  the  ties  looser,  the  want  was  felt  to  get  out  of  de- 
pendence on  Palestine  and  to  order  the  festivals  in  a  definite 
manner.  That  requires  great  resolution,  to  arrange  a  new 
order  of  fixing  the  religious  festivals  and  to  depart  from  the 
old  proceeding  of  consulting  the  visible,  natural  phenomenon 
as  it  had  been  believed  to  be  ordained  in  the  letter  of  the 
Scripture  and  to  bear  the  seal  of  divinity.     Such  an  under- 


The  Babylonian  Schools  243 

taking  can  arise  only  out  of  a  fresh  living  time,  and  it  was 
accomplished  then.  Its  beginnings  are  hidden  from  us;  it 
suddenly  stands  before  us,  a  definite  calendar  is  ordained  so 
that  the  festivals  are  ordered  according  to  fixed  calculation, 
without  having  to  observe  the  appearance  of  the  new  moon. 
With  the  acceptance  of  that  ordinance,  many  consequences 
of  the  old  proceeding  fell  into  disuse.  In  the  olden  times, 
new  year  often  had  to  be  celebrated  two  days,  because  they 
did  not  know  whether  the  new  moon  had  actually  appeared, 
and  often  the  second  day  was  the  correct  one.  Those  who 
resided  far  away  and  learned  of  the  announcement  of  the 
appearance  of  the  new  moon  only  towards  the  middle  of  the 
month,  could  not  know  the  day  decided  on  in  Jerusalem,  and 
had  to  keep  other  holidays  for  two  days.  With  a  fixed 
calendar,  all  doubts  disappeared,  and  the  reason  for  a  two 
days*  celebration  existed  no  longer.  The  two  days  for  the 
new  year  were  retained.  For,  said  they,  when  the  Temple  is 
rebuilt,  the  former  regulations  about  observing  the  appear- 
ance of  the  new  moon  will  be  restored,  and  then  the  cases 
when  two  days  have  to  be  kept  will  occur  again,  and  therefore 
it  is  better  to  leave  it  in  this  way.  But  for  the  other  holidays, 
they  felt  a  two  days'  celebration  to  be  unnecessary.  Yet  from 
Palestine  a  message  came:  "Hold  fast  to  the  custom  of 
your  fathers."  Palestine  felt  itself  injured  by  a  transforma- 
tion of  the  former  regulation. 

Thus  in  Babylonia  a  new  order  had  arisen;  and  not 
enough,  that  calculation  had  taken  the  place  of  seeing  the 
new  moon.  They  shifted  in  some  cases  the  day  of  the  festival 
out  and  out.  It  was  considered  burdensome  to  have  sabbath  - 
and  a  day  of  atonement  follow  each  other,  that  the  day  of 
atonement  should  be  on  a  Friday  or  a  Sunday,  as  had  often ^ 
happened  before,  and  is  expressly  shown  in  the  Mishnah. 
To  keep  two  such  important  rest  days  and  holidays  in  suc- 
cession interfered  with  all  conditions  of  life;  and  to  prevent 
that,  it  was  ordained  that  new  year  should  not  be  celebrated 
on  Wednesday  or  Friday;  the  day  was  shifted  if  it  should 
happen  to  fall  on  one  of  those  days  according  to  the  calcula- 
tion of  the  moon's  course.     It  was  a  bold  interference,  the 


244  Judaism  and  Its  History 

ordinance  cut  deep  into  the  arrangements  which  had  till  then 
been  valid,  but  it  carried,  and  became  the  rule  for  all  time. 

In  other  ways  they  showed  their  independence  of  Palestine. 
In  Palestine,  winter  is  the  rainy  season,  and  for  this  rainy 
season  there  is  in  the  prayer-book  a  fixed  formula:  "Give 
dew  and  rain  for  a  blessing."  In  Palestine  this  rainy  season 
begins  in  the  first  half  of  Marcheshvan,  in  November.  But 
Babylonia  has  a  different  climate.  The  rainy  season  begins 
a  month  later,  sixty  days  after  the  sun  crosses  the  line  in 
Tishri.  **We  pray  for  ourselves,'*  said  the  Babylonians, 
"not  for  Palestine,  for  the  right  kind  of  winter  and  the 
growth  of  vegetation  in  our  own  country."  And  without 
hesitation,  they  ordered  that  the  prayer  should  be  made  later. 
Consider  the  difference  between  that  vigorous  time  and  the 
periods  of  weakness  following  later.  Then  in  Babylonia 
shortly  after  their  removal  from  the  soil  of  Palestine  when 
the  wound  of  its  loss  was  still  bleeding,  near  the  land  which 
still  exerted  great  influence,  they  yet  dared  with  decision  to 
break  away  in  prayer  from  its  forms,  if  they  did  not  cor- 
respond to  the  needs  of  their  own  country.  The  later  time 
stuck  to  the  Babylonian  order.  We  have  no  rainy  season, 
our  seasons  are  quite  different;  but  still  we  follow  the  Baby- 
lonian ordinance  and  use  the  formula  of  prayer  at  the  time 
which  was  set  for  that  country,  with  a  show  of  fitness.  Nor 
do  we  follow  the  rule  of  Palestine,  which  would  have  some 
justification  m  the  mind  of  those  who  have  their  view  upon 
the  holy  land  of  the  future. 

In  every  way.  Babylonia  had  become  a  spiritual  world- 
power.  It  had  not  completely  emancipated  itself  from 
Palestine,  had  continued  in  its  spirit,  but  with  independent 
energy,  with  boldness  and  clear  mind,  so  that  its  influence 
upon  the  later  time  remained  a  lasting  one.  A  healthy,  here 
and  there,  a  rough  realism  ruled  there,  and  the  religious 
expressions  are  sometimes  rough  and  harsh,  but  never  sickly 
and  weak.  That  rugged  nature  shows  itself  also  in  their  tales 
and  legends  which  often  are  very  sensual,  yet  at  the  same 
time  plastic,  and  proceed  from  a  certain  energy  of  life.  Sound 
nature  reveals  itself  in  the  vigorous  moral  sense  that  breaks 


Gemara  245 

through  everywhere.  Not  only  is  every  injustice  reproved, 
but  every  action,  too,  which  might  mislead  anybody  into 
erroneous  conception,  even  if  that  is  not  their  intention. 
For  such,  the  pictorial  expression  is  used:  to  commit  theft 
of  the  supposition  of  the  other  man.  Desecration  of  the 
divine  name,  it  is  called,  when  a  man  who  enjoys  high  regard 
as  a  teacher  of  religion,  does  not  at  once  pay  for  his  require- 
ments and  causes  the  appearance  as  if  he  would  avoid  doing 
so.  It  was  a  life  of  solid  core,  even  if  the  stuff  appears  rude 
here  and  there. 

Thus  the  schools  flourished  there  for  some  time.  Many  a 
new  thing  was  developed,  even  if  free  science  could  not 
succeed  under  the  government  of  the  Parthians.  With  all 
externalism,  a  sharp,  penetrating  sense  is  revealed  so  that  by 
the  collection  of  the  local  discussions  Judaism  was  kept  from 
stagnation.  That  collection  was  joined  to  the  Mishnah. 
Yet,  about  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century,  the  schools 
continued  in  their  debates,  a  formal  closing  never  took  place, 
but  gloomy  circumstances  came  in  time  and  brought  it  about, 
and  all  at  once  completion  and  inactivity  arrived.  The 
Gemara — i.  e.,  learning,  completion,  as  that  work  which 
joined  the  Mishnah  was  called — the  Babylonian  Talmud,  as 
the  two  works  were  named,  was  not  closed;  they  closed  of 
themselves.  The  work  was  never  formally  voted  on  or 
accepted,  it  gained  validity  and  kept  it  until — a  new  spiritual, 
equally  vigorous  power  arises.  A  complete,  free  develop- 
ment could  not  form  itself  in  those  times,  but  furrows  were 
drawn  for  later  seeding,  the  soil  was  kept  fresh,  that  it  may 
be  filled  with  new  germ. 

In  the  meantime,  the  Roman  empire  had  been  moving 
nearer  its  disintegration.  Roman  paganism,  grown  weak, 
became  at  last  persecution-mad  in  the  consciousness  of  its 
impotency;  it  decayed  gradually  and  could  not  resist  new 
powers.  Christianity  in  its  mediation  between  paganism  and 
Judaism  increased  in  importance  and  respect,  overcame 
crumbled  paganism  and  mounted  the  throne.  Even  that 
new  force,  ecclesiastical  life,  was  not  able  to  rejuvenate  the 
ageing  Roman  empire,  so  that  it  might  have  resisted  the 


246  Judaism  and  Its  History 

approaching  storms,  it  did  not  breathe  into  it  a  full,  new 
spirit  which  could  have  raised  a  dam  against  the  floods. 
When  the  floods  of  the  migration  of  nations  rolled  over  it, 
all  at  once,  the  Roman  empire  broke  down,  barbarism  flowed 
over  it,  perhaps  necessary  barbarism  to  bring  fresh,  rugged 
forces  into  the  world.  The  Church  was  now  the  carrier  of 
the  only  wretched  remains  of  culture  as  far  as  it  permitted 
it  to  be  harbored.  For  Judaism,  a  hard,  gloomy  time  had 
come.  In  comparison  with  that,  its  members  had  formerly 
only  sipped  at  the  cup  of  sorrows,  now  they  were  to  empty 
it  to  the  lees.  Even  the  rude  nations  did  not  put  up  as 
violent  resistance  to  Judaism,  as  now  the  councils  of  the 
Church  organized  it.  They  prohibited  every  intercourse 
with  Jews;  not  only  was  marriage  between  them  and  the 
members  of  the  Christian  Church  forbidden  under  severe 
penalties,  but  every  tie  of  friendship,  every  intimate  inter- 
course is  represented  as  leading  to  damnation  and  is  warned 
against.  Thus  the  rudeness  of  the  nations  was  paired  with 
the  refined  animosity  of  a  religion  which  could  not  pardon 
another  for  still  existing  and  remaining  among  the  living 
while  it  asserted  to  have  consumed  it  long  ago.  Thus  it 
seemed  as  if  mankind  would  fall  completely  into  barbarism. 
Yet  the  spirit  ot  humanity  never  sleeps  altogether;  even  if  a 
part  flags,  if  it  laboriously  pants  along  here  under  difficulties 
piled  up  to  giant  height,  it  rises  elsewhere  with  unsuspected 
energy.  All  at  once,  day  breaks  within  a  people  which  had 
never  been  looked  at  and  which  until  then  had  never  been 
noticed.  A  new  factor  entered  humanity,  and  it  carried  the 
light  in  the  lead  for  several  centuries — the  Arabians. 


IV. 

Islam. 

At  the  beginning  of  the  seventh  century,  the  world  seemed 
in  fact  to  have  sunk  into  complete  barbarism.  Mental 
drouth  and  emptiness  everywhere ;  nowhere  a  living  fountain 
which,  flowing  along,  fertilizes  anew.  Ancient  Greek  and 
Roman  culture  had  almost  completely  perished ;  in  the  Greek 
empire,  culture  had  shrunk  together  into  narrow-minded  for- 
mality and  courtly  etiquette,  and  the  very  language,  once  so 
beautiful  and  plastic,  was  barbarized.  Ancient  Roman 
culture  had  long  ago  become  pithless  and  was  no  longer 
known  by  name.  The  Latin  language,  which  still  kept  up  as 
the  language  of  the  scholars,  could  hardly  be  recognized  if 
tried  by  the  measure  of  the  old  classics.  In  Christianity  it 
had  come  so  far  that  the  knowledge  of  the  original  languages 
upon  which  the  religion  based  itself  and  in  which  its  holy 
books  were  written,  had  altogether  disappeared.  Yet  in  the 
third  and  fourth  centuries,  fathers  of  the  church  with  learned 
mind  had  looked  for  means  to  spread  the  knowledge  of  the 
holy  Scriptures  and  to  effect  understanding  of  them.  Origines 
had  put  together  all  Greek  translations  of  the  Hebrew  bible 
as  they  had  been  put  forth  by  Jews  after  the  Septuagint 
translation;  namely  those  of  the  second  and  third  centuries 
by  Aquila,  Symmachus,  and  Theodotion,  in  order  to  effect 
in  that  way  a  more  correct  comprehension  of  the  text  of  the 
bible,  and  we  now  owe  to  his  endeavor  the  knowledge  of  those 
valuable  remains  of  antiquity,  even  if  in  sorry  fragments,  as 
far  as  the  crushing  ignorance  has  not  destroyed  them.  Jerome 
had  undertaken  to  correct,  according  to  recent  Jewish  investi- 
gations, the  old  Latin  translation  as  it  had  come  out  of  the 
Greek  of  the  Septuagint,  and  contained  a  mass  of  errors,  and 
to  make  a  new  Latin  translation.  He  was,  after  much 
resistance,  followed  by  the  Christian  church,  and  the  Latin 


248  Judaism  and  Its  History 

translation  which  even  now  is  canonical  with  Catholics  and 
is  regarded  as  the  only  valid  one,  the  so-called  Vulgata,  rests 
mainly  on  the  corrected  comprehension  received  by  Jerome 
from  Jews,  according  to  original  Hebrew  text.  That  hap- 
pened in  the  third  and  fourth  centuries.  In  the  meantime 
the  knowledge  of  the  ancient  languages  disappeared  entirely, 
and  naturally  the  Scriptures  too,  lost  all  consideration — there 
was  drouth  and  sterility. 

In  Judaism  also,  the  last  creative  force,  which  had  not 
rejuvenated,  but  yet  worked  with  independence,  those 
Babylonian  schools  which  in  the  consciousness  of  their  energy, 
influenced  deeply  and  transformed,  it  also  was  dried  up. 
The  Parthian  empire  fell,  and  with  its  vigor  the  flower  of  the 
Babylonian  schools  went  down — here  too,  gloomy  silence 
soon  covers  everything.  From  the  beginning  of  the  seventh 
century,  hardly  a  sound  penetrates  to  us;  at  most  that  per- 
haps in  Palestine  an  after-growth  of  legend-work  ventured  out 
which  perhaps  belongs  to  this  time  and  may  belong  to  a  later 
one.  Now  a  new  phenomenon  arises,  original  energy  sud- 
denly steps  out  among  a  people  which  till  then  had  not  been 
gifted  by  culture  and  which  lived  on  its  separate  soil  unfettered 
in  isolated  tribes.     Islam  arose. 

The  rise  and  course  of  Islam  is  one  of  the  most  instructive 
world-historical  phenomena,  if  we  do  not  permit  our  receptive- 
ness  to  be  dimmed  f®r  esteeming,  without  bias,  historical 
events  according  to  their  true  value.  Since  the  cry,  "The 
Turk  breaks  forth,"  no  longer  brings  fright  and  confusion 
into  the  mind,  since  the  Turk  has  been  confined  within  his 
borders,  men  have  in  general  passed  on  to  the  regular  order 
of  business.  They  believe  that  Islam  is  really  existing  only 
by  the  grace  of  Christianity,  that  it  is  a  sick  man  whose  dis- 
solution may  be  expected  at  any  moment,  whose  life  is  pre- 
served but  artificially,  and  that  only  the  mutual  jealousy  of 
the  Christian  powers  prolongs  that  artificial  life  and  keeps  it 
from  expiring,  as  the  faith  is  anyway  in  mortal  sickness. 
With  that  conception,  the  present  believes  itself  also  absolved 
from  a  deeper  consideration  of  the  former  importance  of 
Islam.     But  if  such  judgment  about  the  present  condition  of 


Islam  249 

Islam  is  one-sided  and  superficial,  if  the  remarkable  forces  of 
life  that  are  yet  working  within,  even  when  they  do  not  press 
so  violently  to  the  surface,  are  underestimated,  such  small 
consideration  of  its  past  is  a  gross  mistake  of  an  important 
historical  power. 

Six  centuries  had  elapsed  since  a  new  religion  had  arisen. 
It  had  then  full  possession  of  the  most  powerful  kingdoms  of 
the  world,  had  absorbed  the  saps  of  the  entire  ancient  cul- 
tured world  and  spread  to  great  distances.  Now  arises  again 
a  new  religion  in  a  cultureless  people,  runs  a  victorious  race 
almost  through  the  whole  known  world,  takes  the  best  and 
finest  provinces  of  the  Greek  empire,  spreads  over  Africa, 
takes  possession  of  fine  countries  in  Europe  (Sicily,  Southern 
Italy,  Spain,  and  for  awhile  the  southern  part  of  France),  and 
remains  for  a  long  time  a  very  dangerous  enemy  of  Europe 
and  Christianity,  becomes  a  feared  power  which  for  centuries 
has  the  decision  of  the  world's  affairs  in  its  hands,  and  even 
when  the  original  carrier  of  this  faith  grows  weary  and  sinks 
down,  a  wild  and  for  culture  unreceptive  tribe  arises  and 
freshens  up  the  declining  empire.  The  Ottomans  came,  and 
not  only  that,  they  offer  a  new  stronghold,  they  destroy  the 
last  remains  of  the  Greek  empire,  the  old  homestead  of 
Christianity.  Constantinople  falls  into  their  hands,  and  for 
centuries  more,  they  stand  as  a  threatening  power.  For  a 
thousand  years  Islam  rules  over  a  large  part  of  the  globe,  and 
still  to-day  counts  its  professors  by  millions.  And  not  only 
that  it  rules  and  shows  power,  but  during  a  great  portion  of 
that  thousand  years,  it  carries  the  torch  of  science  at  the 
head,  culture  proceeds  from  it,  it  is  the  refreshing  fountain 
that  prevents  the  spirits  from  going  to  sleep  and  drying  up. 
That  is  certainly  a  grand  and  remarkable  phenomenon. 

Necessarily  that  religion  must  contain  truths  which  helped 
it  to  so  quick  and  long-enduring  victory.  But  not  the  truths 
alone  which  it  proclaimed,  which  were  not  even  new,  prepare 
that  triumph,  but  rather  that  those  truths  were  expressed  in 
a  form  fitting  the  times  and  the  people  among  whom  they 
were  spread;  that  was  what  gave  to  Islam  such  great  ascen- 
dency.    Islam  proclaims  truths  which,  of  course,  it  has  not 


250  Judaism  and  Its  History 

created,  with  all  energy,  and  they  conducted  the  convictions 
to  it  indeed.  The  unity  of  God  and  the  impossibility  of 
representing  Him  by  pictures  is  its  emblem,  the  doctrine 
which  it  sustains  with  all  decision,  and  every  stunting  of  that 
idea  is  an  abomination  to  it.  That  truth  marched  victori- 
ously in  advance  of  its  sword  and  tied  the  power  to  its  colors. 
Still  another  circumstance  lent  to  Islam  high  meaning.  It 
met  the  sickliness  of  the  Middle  Ages  with  a  healthy  feeling 
of  the  present.  Islam  had  no  ideal  of  the  past  toward  which 
it  was  striving.  It  had  no  weakly  longing  to  mirror  only 
conditions  as  they  had  once  existed ;  it  lived  in  the  immediate 
present  and  worked  to  use  and  enliven  that.  The  healthiness 
of  its  essence  gave  it  a  real  power  in  the  world's  history, 
and  enabled  it  to  pour  forth  encouragement  for  the  unfolding 
of  the  living  forces  while  they  were  long  wasted  elsewhere  in 
sickliness.  And  also  the  defects  and  weaknesses  even  which 
Islam  carried  within  itself,  because  they  belonged  to' the  time, 
because  they  fitted  the  people  among  whom  it  spread,  even 
they  were  in  the  same  degree,  cause  and  assurance  of  its  quick 
acceptance. 

Islam  recognizes  in  God,  the  one,  the  unrepresentable.  It 
recognizes  in  Him  the  only  power,  the  only  ruler,  besides 
whom  no  one  can  exist,  besides  whom  nothing  may  be 
esteemed,  it  worships  in  God  the  almighty  one.  God  is 
great,  God  is  almighty;  that  is  the  exclamation  to  which  it 
always  returns  with  true  monotony.  But  it  does  not  also  at 
the  same  time  proclaim  the  holiness  and  purity  with  which 
He  rises  over  all  evil;  that  deeper  recognition  of  the  moral 
essence  as  ideal,  of  which  the  divine  must  be  recognized,  is 
missing  from  the  whole  elaboration  of  its  doctrine  in  the 
multiple  praises  of  the  Koran  as  well  as  in  the  later  writings. 
A  deeper  view  into  the  moral  order  of  the  world,  into  the  moral 
progress  which  proceeds  from  the  fountain  of  all  purity,  is 
not  found  in  Islam.  There  is  hardly  a  word  for  ''holy"  in 
the  Arabian  language.  It  is  true,  Mohammed  uses  the 
designation  "merciful"  of  God  and  it  is  well  known  that  most 
suras  of  the  Koran  begin  with  the  superscription,  *'In  the 
name   of   God   the   merciful."    But   just   that   expression, 


Islam  251 

" merciful"  (rachman),  he  borrowed  from  Judaism;  the  word 
and  the  idea  did  not  arise  in  and  were  not  born  of  the  Arabian 
spirit,  but  they  were  called  and  taken  over  from  the  source 
out  of  which  it  has  drawn  so  much.  Mohammed  uses  a  word 
that  had  become  customary  with  the  Babylonian  Jews  who 
formulated  "the  Merciful  One  (rachmana)  says"  instead  of  the 
former  expression,  "the  Scripture  says."  To  such  an  extent 
had  that  become  the  usual  expression  for  God.  Yet,  while 
Mohammed  gladly  adopted  that  word  out  of  his  Jewish 
environment  and  wanted  to  put  it  also  at  the  head  of  his 
system,  he  found  decided  opposition  to  the  designation;  it 
remained  simply  Koranic,  the  people  exchanged  it  for  another 
one  which  means  *'  Ruler  "  or  "Lord  of  all."  The  deeper  moral 
insight  is  lacking  in  Islam,  as  the  Arabians  themselves  lacked 
it;  man  according  to  his  higher  worth,  according  to  the  deeper 
significance  of  his  being,  does  not  receive  his  full  rights  in 
Islam.  "God  is  great,"  Islam,  surrender  to  Him,  complete 
surrender y  without  question,  without  making  any  claim  for 
oneself,  to  expunge  oneself  in  a  measure  while  God  alone  rules: 
that  is  the  whole  inner  core  of  Islam.  That  man  carries  some- 
thing of  the  divine  within  him ;  that  he  has  to  furnish  his  share 
for  the  ennobling  of  the  world ;  that  he  is  the  crown  of  creation 
according  to  his  full  spiritual  and  moral  perception — that  is 
an  idea  which  did  not  reach  full  consciousness  in  Islam. 
Dull  resignation  is  the  highest  and  best  that  man  can  offer 
and  with  which  he  can  worship  God — the  true  fatherhood  of 
God  and  sonship  of  man  which  is  so  beautifully  expressed  in 
Judaism  and  which  the  daughter-religion  has  adopted  from 
it,  is  something  foreign  and  unknown  in  Islam. 

The  real  worth  of  man,  according  to  its  true  significance, 
has  never  been  recognized  within  the  Arabian  people. 
Every  vigorous  people  forms  out  of  itself  a  solid  core  which 
constitutes,  not  dependent  upon  the  accidents  of  events,  an 
almost  unchangeable  center  around  which  the  whole  groups 
itself.  The  best  ancient  and  modern  nations  had  worked 
out  of  themselves  such  a  core,  old  generations,  families  that 
carried  their  importance  within  themselves  by  merit  in- 
herited from  father  to  son,  who  conceived  their  duties  and 


252  Judaism  and  Its  History 

requirements  from  their  own  worth,  and  who  well  recognized 
what  task  was  incumbent  upon  them  just  on  account  of  their 
social  position.  Such  a  patriciate,  such  an  aristocracy,  if  it 
does  not  become  fossilized,  if  it  does  not  become  submerged 
by  vain  pomp  and  claims  of  privileges,  is  such  a  concentra- 
tion of  the  best  and  worthiest,  and  if  it  is  freshened  up  by 
reception  of  new  and  healthy  forces  and  thereby  preserves 
its  youth,  forms  the  moral  foundation  of  a  people.  It  is 
found  in  all  nations  that  have  obtained  world-historic  im- 
portance. Greeks,  Romans,  Jews,  and  the  more  modern 
European  nations  show  such  a  center  within  the  people, 
which  does  not  completely  lose  its  worth,  even  when  the 
power  has  been  wrested  out  of  its  hands.  On  the  contrary^ 
people  among  whom  even  the  hint  of  an  arbitrary  despot  or 
the  rumbling  tramp  of  the  mob  commands,  where  the  momen- 
tary capricious  favor  raises  and  again  casts  down  into  in- 
significance, are  like  heaps  thrown  together,  now  extending 
far,  and  again  scattered  apart.  Such  was  the  peculiarity  of 
the  people  to  whom  Islam  was  brought  hrst.  Personal 
dignity  of  man  did  not  exist  among  those  people  according 
to  its  full  recognition,  and  thus  Islam,  which  also  denies  it, 
and  forces  it  to  the  rear,  was  particularly  fitting  to  those 
nations.  During  the  ninth  and  tenth  centuries,  there  arose 
among  the  Arabians  a  school  of  philosophers  who  were  not 
considered  orthodox  and  were  looked  upon  with  suspicion; 
they  were  called  Brothers  of  Purity.  They  made  many 
scientific  investigations,  important  for  that  time,  and  among 
other  things  there  has  come  down  from  them  a  presentation 
of  the  dispute  between  man  and  the  animals.  The  animals 
complain  that  man  has  subjugated  them  in  an  arbitrary 
manner  and  the  verdict  is  in  favor  of  the  animals.  The 
advantage  of  man  above  the  animal,  which  is  of  course  given 
through  his  reason  and  which  he  can  not  shake  off,  is  not 
recognized  according  to  its  true  justification  because  the 
moral  element  is  beyond  the  horizon  and  not  considered. 

Those  are  dark  sides  of  Islam,  a  germ  of  disease  which  was 
in  it  from  the  very  beginning  and  necessarily  contributed  to 
its  degeneration  and  enfeeblement.     But  for  just  that  reason 


Mohammed  253 

it  was  fitted  to  the  taste  of  the  people  to  whom  it  was  brought. 
The  religion  of  Islam  spread  because  it  was  in  the  disposition 
of  the  people  whom  it  was  to  rule.  The  disposition  of  the 
people,  the  peculiarity  of  the  conditions  of  the  time  it  is — 
and  that  is  a  great  lesson  we  draw  from  Islam,  its  rise  and 
acquisition  of  power — what  introduces  a  religion  into  life  and 
preserves  it  therein  for  a  long  time.  The  man  who  under- 
stands it  to  be  the  exponent  of  the  mood  of  the  time  and  the 
people,  who  comprehends  how  to  wrap  a  general  truth  into 
the  fitting  garment,  fitting  in  the  eyes  of  the  men  who  are  to 
accept  it,  that  man  is  the  bearer  of  an  idea  shaped  in  keeping 
with  the  time,  and  he  succeeds  in  his  endeavors.  Mohammed, 
the  founder  of  Islam,  was  such  a  man.  The  religion  spread 
so  fast  in  Mohammed's  lifetime  that  we  are  tempted  to 
attribute  to  him  all  merit  and  all  significance.  When  any- 
where, in  any  religion  from  its  eflfects  a  conclusion  upon  the 
dignity  of  the  founder  is  justified,  it  should  be  thought  to 
be  the  case  in  Islam.  Mohammed  created  all,  in  his  lifetime 
Islam  was  already  a  victorious  power,  he  himself  is  the  author 
of  the  holy  book  which,  if  he  does  not  write  it  himself,  he 
yet  dictates  to  be  written.  The  saying,  "There  is  no  God  but 
Allah,  and  Mohammed  is  his  prophet,'*  has  remained  from 
the  very  beginning  of  Islam  until  the  present  day  the  confes- 
sion of  faith  by  which  it  is  accepted,  Mohammed  is  accord- 
ingly the  true  and  full  exponent  of  Islam.  If  Islam  has,  what 
can  not  be  disputed,  obtained  high  importance,  it  should  be 
thought  that  its  founder  must  have  been  a  man  that  towered 
above  the  ordinary  stature  of  men.  And  yet,  Mohammed 
was  not  a  great  man.  He  was  not  a  mind  that,  mastering 
and  subjugating,  makes  the  others  bow  before  him.  He  was 
not  one  who,  by  his  own  importance,  finds  easy  acceptance 
by  the  intelligent  and  studious,  not  one  who,  by  his  luminous 
ray,  puts  others  into  the  shade.  He  was  not  a  great  man, 
had  not  the  moral  superiority,  that  silent  grandeur  to  chain 
the  minds  to  him.  Mohammed  was  ignorant;  he  did  not 
excel  by  any  superiority  of  mind.  Mohammed  was  a  slave 
to  his  passions  and  to  sensual  greed  in  every  way.  No  traits 
of  moral  nobilit)^,  of  deeper  sentiment,  are  related  of  him.. 


254  Judaism  and  Its  History 

The  Arabians  are  naive  enough  that  they  present  his  char- 
acter to  us  in  its  entire  nakedness,  without  adornment  and 
paint.  Nobody,  free  from  bias,  will  count  Mohammed 
among  heroes.  With  this  judgment  those  also  agree  who 
turn  with  preference  to  Arabian  studies  and  ideas  and  are 
not  influenced  by  any  religious  prejudice,  and  it  suffices  if, 
instead  of  other  witnesses,  I  quote  the  words  of  a  thorough 
and  competent  investigator.  Sprenger  (Moh.  I,  313)  says: 
"Burning  enthusiasm,  paired  with  low  cunning,  pure  sacrifice 
for  a  higher  aim  with  mean  selfishness,  indulgence,  even 
dependence  upon  others,  with  obstinacy,  devotion  with 
treachery;  those  are  a  few  of  the  contradictory  psychic 
qualities  of  Mohammed's  character.'*  And  yet  he  is  founder 
of  a  religion  which  has  exerted  such  a  powerful  influence  and 
has  it  yet.  He  is  that,  because  he  received  the  truth  as  it 
lay  in  the  disposition  of  his  people  at  the  time ;  because,  filled 
with  it,  he  served  it,  and  thus  he  became  a  benefactor  of 
mankind. 

He  received  those  truths;  he  was  not  their  creator,  he 
simply  took  them  over  out  of  Judaism.  The  rise  of  Islam 
reveals  to  us  a  fragment  of  Jewish  history  which  would  have 
remained  entirely  hidden  from  us,  without  it.  The  Jews  of 
that  country  exerted  no  particular  influence  upon  the  inner 
development  of  Judaism  as  a  whole;  situated  away  off  in  a 
corner,  without  higher  culture  mentally,  without  learned 
knowledge  of  the  law,  knowing  particulars  only  by  con- 
nection with  the  territories  which  were  the  homes  of  higher 
culture  among  the  Jews,  they  went  to  the  rear,  their  whole 
life  and  existence  remained  out  of  sight.  We  get  a  knowledge 
of  them  only  through  Islam  and  the  history  of  its  rise.  Jews 
were  spread  throughout  Arabia  from  ancient  time.  When 
they  first  entered  it,  cannot  be  accurately  determined.  And, 
if  we  can  not  yet  accord  the  right  of  historic  facts  to  recent 
suppositions  which  want  to  put  them  back  into  earliest  times 
and  make  them  part  of  the  original  population  of  Arabia,  so 
much  is  certain:  the  Jewish  population  of  Arabia  was  spread 
in  great  extent  through  the  whole  country  during  the  first 
Christian  centuries.    From  the  sixth  century,  we  hear  of 


The  Jews  in  Arabia  255 

powerful  Jewish  kings  who  have  ruled  in  Southern  Arabia, 
in  Yemen,  with  courage  and  power,  and  spread  Judaism  afar. 
Their  empire  is  destroyed  by  Christian  Ethiopian  kings,  but 
it  had  impressed  its  memories  deep  into  the  whole  Arabian 
existence.  But  in  Arabia  proper,  too,  in  the  northern  part, 
where  the  new  religion  arose,  there  were  numerous  Jewish 
tribes  who  carried  the  complete  Arabian  characteristics. 
They  move  about  independent,  raise  cattle,  and  carry  on  less 
agriculture,  because  the  fertile  soil  offers  of  itself  sufficient  for 
their  few  wants.  They  carry  on  frequent  bloody  feuds  among 
themselves  and  with  their  neighbors,  and  gather  again  in  a 
common  city,  which  is  the  meeting-place  for  barter,  sale,  and 
exchange,  mainly  in  the  Arabian  city  Jethrab,  which  later 
was  called  Medina,  or  in  full,  Medinath  al  Nabi.  They  were 
Arabian  tribes  with  Arabian  peculiarities,  but  at  the  same 
time  with  complete  devotion  to  the  faith  of  their  fathers.  I 
will  present  one  man  as  example ;  he  may  bear  witness  for  the 
ideas  which  ruled  among  those  tribes,  particularly  in  the 
better  part  of  them.  At  the  beginning  of  the  sixth  century, 
Samual  Ben  Adija  was  living  in  a  strong  castle  on  Ablak  in 
Taima.  Samual — Arabian  for  Samuel — was  a  prince  of  far 
fame  in  his  part  of  the  country.  Mockingly,  some  fault- 
finding voices  pointed  to  the  insignificance  of  the  Jewish 
tribes,  to  the  small  number  of  the  entire  Jewish  nation. 
With  manly  pride,  he  meets  the  fault-finder  in  a  song — for, 
like  all  Arabs,  he  was  fond  of  poetry  and  song: 

"If  a  man's  honor  is  unspotted  by  disgrace, 
Any  garment  that  covers  him  is  well-becoming. 
Courageously  his  soul  attempts  the  difficult, 
Else  his  course  is  not  directed  toward  fame. 
They  reproach:    Our  people's  number  is  but  small, 
I  say:     Few  are  the  noble  ones  everywhere. 
A  troop  is  not  insignificant  that  knows  to  stand 
As  we  do,  striving  for  the  best,  youth  as  well  as  age. 
What  matters  that  but  few  we  are,  yet  with  us  is  honored 
The  refugee  who,  with  the  many,  is  often  injured. 
Ours  is  a  mount  that  shields  the  friend  in  our  protection, 
Unscalable,  it  bids  defy  to  coward  eye, 


256  Judaism  and  Its  History 

Its  foot  fast  rooted  in  the  ground,  up  to  the  stars 
Unattainable,  its  high,  rock-front  carries  him." 

A  refugee  is  here  mentioned,  who  is  in  his  castle  protected, 
even  honored.  He  does  not  unjustly  claim  the  glory  of 
hospitality,  that  particular  virtue  of  the  Arabians  toward  him 
who  entrusts  himself  to  the  house,  to  protect  him  with  entire 
faith  and  devotion ;  he  proves  it  in  his  life.  He  is  a  friend  of 
Amrulkais  Ben  Hodohr  of  the  tribe  of  Kend.  This  friend  is 
driven  from  power  and  home;  to  regain  it,  he  seeks  assistance 
at  the  Greek  imperial  court.  Before  he  starts  on  his  way  he 
entrusts  his  entire  property,  five  valuable  suits  of  armor  to 
his  friend  Samual.  Amrulkais  has  no  success  at  the  imperial 
court,  and  dies  soon  thereafter.  Then  Alhareth,  an  enemy  of 
Amrulkais,  appears  before  the  castle  and  demands  the  surren- 
der of  the  armor.  Samual  refuses  and  Alhareth,  lays  siege  to 
the  castle.  It  resists  his  wild  attacks.  One  day  the  slave 
nurse  walks  outside  with  the  youngest  child  of  Samual; 
Alhareth  captures  her  and  sends  to  the  besieged  a  threat  that 
he  will  kill  the  child  if  his  enemy's  armor  is  not  handed  over 
to  him.  Samual  hesitates  a  moment,  but  only  a  moment; 
then  he  speaks:  **  I  can  not  surrender  the  armor  and  be  faith- 
less to  my  trust:  Do  as  you  like  to  do.  Treachery  is  a  collar 
that  does  not  rust.     My  boy  has  brothers." 

He  does  not  hand  over  the  armor,  the  child  is  murdered, 
but  Alhareth  is  obliged  to  raise  the  siege.  Again  voices  speak 
with  blame  on  Samual's  action,  but  he  replies: 

"Faultfinder,  cease  blaming  the  man 
Whom  you  have  often  seen  defying  blame. 
You  should,  if  I  am  in  error,  put  me  on  the  right  road, 
Not  make  me  err  by  words  without  understanding. 
I  have  kept  the  armor  of  the  man  of  the  Kend. 
Another  may  betray  what  is  entrusted  to  him ! 
Adija,  my  father,  long  ago  advised  me: 
Oh  tear  not  down,  Samual,  what  I  have  built! 
He  strongly  built  the  fort  for  me  in  which 
I  did  not  fear  to  defy  the  besieger." 

Asha,  a  poet  of  that  time,  glorifies  Samual  for  it,  and  puts 
him  forth  as  a  pattern; 


Samual  Ben  Adija  257 

"Be  like  Samual,  when  the  warrior  prince 
Pressed  hard  against  him  with  all  his  might; 
Stand  between  loss  of  child  and  treachery ! 
A  bad  choice  which  has  to  be  selected, 
But  he  spoke  with  quick  decision : 
Thou  mayst  murder  thy  captive,  I  shield  my  guest." 

That  such  a  man  had  to  stand  up  in  many  a  feud  is 
natural,  but  he  did  not  lose  heart,  and  said: 

"When  doubtful  and  precarious  stand  affairs, 
When  thinking  of  the  outcome  makes  one  fear. 
When  narrow  buckled  armor  almost  breaks  the  chest, 
When  weak  ones  turn,  unfaithful  to  their  brethren. 
Then  do  I  avoid  what  to  my  weakness  is  the  easier. 
And  act  what  helps  to  shield  my  honor." 

And  when  near  his  end,  he  said: 

"Would  like  to  know,  when  I  am  on  my  bier 
What  testimony  the  mourners  will  bear  of  me, 
If  they  will  say:     Do  not  leave  us,  for  from  many 
A  plight  thou  didst  find  means  to  raise  us. 
Thou  never  couldst  be  kept  from  taking  thy  rights, 
Nor  was  there  need  of  admonishing  thee  to  give  them." 

There  was  a  picture  of  a  proud  Arabian  Emir,  who  looks 
with  pride  upon  his  valor  and  his  sense  of  justice,  upon  his 
faithfulness  and  his  descent.  Thus  were  the  Jewish-Arabian 
tribes  of  that  time.  And  when  Mohammed  arose,  we  see  a 
great  number  of  them,  the  Benu  Kainoka,  Benu  Nadhir,  Benu 
Chaibar,  and  other  more  or  less  important  ones  as  factors  in 
the  history  of  Mohammed  himself  and  in  the  course  of  events. 
With  a  few  individuals  he  had  particularly  intimate  inter- 
course, like  that  with  Abdallah  Ben  Salam,  Pinehas,  and 
others.  From  them  he  accepted  the  truths  which  he  an- 
nounced in  the  Koran,  and  they  came  into  validity  in  Islam. 
The  unity  of  God  and  the  impossibility  of  representing  Him 
by  images,  which  form  the  basis  of  Islam,  are  taken  over  from 
Judaism,  and  the  entire  presentation  of  its  truths  is  a  wholly 
Jewish  one.  The  principal  religious  ideas  are  borrowed  from 
Judaism  with  the  Hebrew  words:    Shekinah,  as  the  omni- 


258  Judaism  and  Its  History 

presence  of  God;  Gan  Eden  as  Paradise  and  reward  of  the 
good ;  Gehinnom  as  place  of  punishment  of  the  wicked.  And 
many  other  comprehensive  ideas  with  their  words  have 
passed  over  from  Judaism  into  Islam  and  the  Arabian  language 
without  their  having  there  an  independent  root;  they  are 
carried  over  bodily  and  complete.  The  entire  presentation 
which  he  gives  to  his  doctrine  is  of  Jewish  coloring,  and  he 
verifies  and  illustrates  his  doctrine  by  examples  from  the 
Jewish  bible  and  the  Jewish  history.  He  could  not  read  the 
bible,  of  course,  but  the  intercourse  he  had  with  Jewish 
tribes,  made  him  familiar  with  its  tales;  he  completely  retains 
the  coloring  of  the  biblical  stories,  the  legendary  ornamenta- 
tion which  Talmud  and  Midrash  have  wrapped  around  them, 
and  thus  they  are  related  in  the  Koran. 

Thus  Judaism,  if  not  the  mother  of  Islam  as  it  is  of  Chris- 
tianity, is  yet  its  nurse  that  nourished  it  with  her  best  forces, 
yet  its  teacher  that  fitted  out  the  pupil  and  raised  him.  Did 
the  fosterchild  treat  his  nurse  with  kinder  feeling  than  the 
daughter  showed  to  her  mother?  In  the  beginning  it  had 
that  appearance.  At  first,  Mohammed  courted  the  favor  of 
the  Jews,  did  very  much  to  please  them,  introduced,  with  a 
view  to  gain  them,  the  fast-day  Ashura  (that  is,  the  fast-day 
of  the  tenth  of  Tishri),  he  wanted  to  fix  the  Kiblah,  the  posi- 
tion to  be  taken  at  prayer,  instead  of  the  Arabian  custom 
toward  Mecca,  toward  Jerusalem,  the  holy  city  of  the  Jews. 
Yet  he  found  but  a  small  number  of  followers  among  the 
Jews,  the  greater  portion  could  not  be  induced  to  do  homage 
to  him  as  a  prophet.  And  that  was  perfectly  natural.  There 
was  nothing  new  offered  to  them  in  his  pretended  revelations; 
on  the  contrary,  they  did  not  find  in  the  new  religion  the 
rich  treasures  complete  as  they  already  had  them.  The 
more  Mohammed  flattered  the  Jews,  the  more  offended  he 
felt  by  the  want  of  success  of  his  condescension ;  and  he  began 
to  persecute  them  as  unbelievers.  Violent  and  destructive 
wars  broke  out,  and  every  new  victory  of  Islam  made  the 
Jews  feel  its  ascendancy  the  harder.  The  Koran  recommends 
tolerance  to  the  Jews,  Christians  and  Sabians — probably  a 
Christian  sect  of  the  time — as  professors  of  the  only  God, 


Islam  ^50 

while  idolators  are  to  be  destroyed.  But  the  friendly,  kindly 
relation  between  Islam  and  Jerusalem  was  done  away  with. 
Thus  Islam  enters  without  new  creative  impulse,  rude  and 
poor  in  ideas,  wild,  and  with  stormy  rattling  of  arms.  A 
pupil  of  Judaism  in  its  religious  views  and  sentiments,  it  soon 
turns  inimically  against  its  spiritual  conductor.  And  yet, 
what  breathes  out  of  it  is  like  fresh  air.  For  Islam  is  not 
like  a  sick  old  man  who,  feeling  the  wasting  of  his  force, 
watches  the  more  jealously  lest  the  power  escape  his  hands, 
who  punishes  the  more  hard-heartedly  every  attempt  at 
asserting  one's  own  right  as  an  invasion  of  his  legitimate 
power,  who,  mean  and  suspicious,  permits  no  new  idea  to 
sprout,  and  who  spreads  lingering  sickliness  in  every  direction. 
No,  Islam  was  like  a  youth  in  high  spirits  who  boldly  inter- 
feres in  the  conditions,  sometimes  perhaps  wasteful  and 
destructive,  but  from  a  superabundance  of  energy  which  after 
all  invigorates  like  a  breath  of  fresh  air.  The  living  impulse, 
too,  of  building  and  shaping,  pulsates  within  it,  rejuvenates 
its  entire  surroundings,  with  new  receptiveness  it  has  also  the 
sound  sense  for  nobleness  and  high-mindedness  and  rapidly 
develops  them.  Islam  spreads  and  at  first  esteems  science 
and  culture  but  little.  Omar  is  said  to  have  burnt  the 
library  at  Alexandria  with  the  remark:  **If  in  these  books 
there  is  something  else  than  in  the  Koran,  they  are  idolatrous; 
if  they  contain  the  same  thing,  they  are  superfluous.**  But 
hardly  a  century  is  past,  and  an  ardent  zeal  arises  among  the 
adherents  of  Islam  for  appropriating  all  culture  and  to  turn 
it  over  to  the  world  newly  invigorated.  From  the  Syrian 
pagans  they  receive  the  remains  of  Greek  culture,  the  treasures 
of  the  old  wisdom;  soon  they  are  translated  from  the  Syriac 
into  the  Arabic,  and  newly  rises  culture  in  the  Middle  Ages. 
The  treasures  of  knowledge  are  again  raised  and  are  turned 
to  good  account  for  Moslems  as  well  as  for  those  living  among 
them,  and  the  entire  Middle  Ages  are  nourished  at  the 
reopened  source  of  supply.  Thus  Islam  requites,  even  if  not 
with  friendly,  kind  feeling,  but  yet  by  the  new  energy  which 
it  pours  forth,  to  Judaism  what  it  has  borrowed,  and  partly 
amends  the  wrong  done  to  it. 


V. 

Karaites,  Awakening  of  Science. 

A  century  had  passed  away  after  the  rise  of  the  new 
religion,  Islam,  and  by  force  of  arms  it  had  conquered  a  great, 
wide  extent  of  territory,  and  mental  culture  had  penetrated 
deep  into  the  mighty  empire.  The  fresh  youthfulness  which 
poured  forth  from  the  new  faith  and  the  young  nation  from 
which  it  had  proceeded,  gave  also  to  those  inhabitants  of  the 
extensive  lands  taken  by  Islam,  even  if  they  had  not  accepted 
the  new  faith,  greater  liberty  in  civil  conditions,  refreshed 
and  elevated  their  spirits.  The  newly-incited  scientific 
endeavor  penetrated  powerfully  also  into  the  Jews  who  resided 
in  Arabia  and  the  countries  dependent  upon  it.  In  peculiar 
manner  this  comes  to  the  surface  in  a  phenomenon  which  soon 
faces  us.  A  new  schism  arises  in  Judaism.  About  the  year 
750,  Anan  Ben  David,  claimed  to  be  of  the  house  of  David, 
comes  forward  and  founds  or  confirms — as  the  old  accounts 
call  it — Karaitism,  a  new  name,  which  has  not  appeared  in 
history  until  then. 

What  is  the  essence  of  Karaitism?  The  Karaites  reject 
the  ordinances  of  the  Talmud  and  their  tradition  affirmed  by 
it,  they  cling  more  firmly  to  the  letter  of  the  Holy  Scriptures. 
Thence  also  the  name:  Karaites,  Bene  Mikra,  sons  of  the 
Scripture,  disciples  of  the  Scripture.  What  was  the  occasion 
for  this  new  schism?  The  rabbis  say,  "Anan  had  been  a 
learned  but  ambitious  man ;  he  had  tried  to  obtain  the  highest 
dignities,  wanted  to  be  Chief  of  the  Exile  and  the  Academy, 
but  they  had  no  confidence  in  him  and  had  refused  him; 
driven  on  by  his  ambition,  he  then  founded  a  renegade  sect. 
How  little  or  how  much  truth  may  be  at  the  bottom  of  that 
account,  this  much  is  indisputable:  one  single  man,  be  he 
ever  so  important,  be  his  mental  power  ever  so  superior  and 
his  eloquence  ever  so  overpowering,  one  single  man  gives  no 


Karaites,  Awakening  of  Science  261 

tiew  direction  and  founds  no  new  sect;  the  entire  time  must 
be  fit  for  it.  He  can  at  most  grasp  the  right  moment,  can 
first  and  definitely  pronounce  the  word  which  is  at  the  lips 
of  all.  Then  a  new  direction  is  taken  and  a  schism  may 
result,  but  it  does  not  start  from  the  one  individual  as  its 
original  cause.  We  therefore  ask  again:  What  was  the 
occasion  for  the  rise  of  Karaitism,  for  the  defection  of  the 
Karaites?  Well,  somebody  may  say,  the  ordinances  of  the 
Talmud  were  oppressive,  their  burdens  could  no  longer  be 
carried,  it  appeared  unjustifiable  in  a  freely  stimulated  time; 
the  interpretations,  as  they  had  been  used  to  confirm  those 
ordinances,  had  gone  too  far  away  from  the  natural  meaning 
of  Scripture.  The  intelligent  and  reasonable  men  could  not 
help  seeing  that  the  bolder  ones  came  forward  with  contra- 
dictions and  when  they  could  not  convince  the  community, 
they  seceded.  What  a  pity,  might  be  perhaps  added,  that 
such  a  healthy  and  sensible  direction  was  not  taken,  that  a 
secession  which  arose  eleven  centuries  ago  and  which  rested 
on  sound  principles,  yet  could  not  become  victorious  and 
carry  all  with  it. 

Where  we  hear  such  mourning  expressed  about  the  course 
of  history,  mourning  about  expected  successes  that  never 
came  to  pass,  we  may  judge  with  certainty:  History  made 
no  mistake,  we  are  in  error  in  our  conception  of  the  matter; 
the  causes  of  which  we  regret  that  their  expected  effects  did 
not  appear,  had  never  existed  at  all.  If  the  result  does  not 
come  out  right,  there  must  be  an  error  in  the  figuring.  Giving 
such  a  judgment,  it  is  forgotten  that  our  consideration  is  only 
in  the  middle  of  the  eighth  century  when  scientific  movement 
existed,  when  many  endeavored  to  acquire  knowledge,  when 
many  a  liberal  idea  dared  to  show  itself,  but  it  would  be  a 
misjudgment  of  the  time  to  suppose  that  the  idea  had  been 
so  powerful  that  it  formed  a  separate  party  and  joined  it 
together  into  a  separate  religious  association.  Schisms  in 
religious  life  do  not  generally  arise  on  the  soil  of  science  and 
free  investigation.  Science  is  too  conscious  of  its  general 
validity  and  of  its  task  to  take  in  and  illuminate  all  mankind, 
to  make  schisms  and  separate  itself  into  a  sect  of  its  own. 


262  Judaism  and  Its  History 

It  has  too  much  the  full  confidence  of  gradually  penetrating 
into  the  lowest  stratum,  of  casting  the  high  light  into  the 
deepest  nook,  to  seclude  itself  into  narrow  confines.  Never 
diet  a  religious  schism  come  out  solely  from  the  soil  of  science. 
Only  when  pressure  wants  to  bend  down  by  force  a  direction 
that  claims  its  justification,  when  power  will  not  permit  it  to 
rise,  and  thus  squeezes  the  band  which  has  gathered  around 
the  idea  to  the  outside;  when,  in  addition  to  that,  heads  of  the 
ruling  religious  direction  show  themselves  unworthy  and  yet 
make  claim  of  sanctity,  yet  demand  to  be  honored  as  legitimate 
representatives  of  the  sanctuary,  when  the  conscience  of  the 
people  is  grossly  insulted  so  that  they  become  indignant  and 
enraged,  only  then  schisms  enter.  Toward  that  outcome 
science  may  have  prepared,  may  have  co-operated  by  break- 
ing a  way  for  freedom  of  the  mind  and  by  working  the  new 
faith  into  ordered,  consistent  and  connected  form.  But  from 
free  investigation  schism  never  starts.  The  ruling  Jewish 
direction  at  that  time  had  neither  the  power  nor  the  will  to 
persecute;  its  representatives  were  plain  and  pious  scholars. 
Science  was  not  suffering  under  repression  and  force,  the 
moral  conscience  was  not  offended  by  mockery  and  scorn. 
Free  investigation  had  no  occasion  to  unfurl  a  flag  of  its  own 
for  its  disciples  in  order  to  join  them  into  a  separate  body. 
Nor  are  the  Karaites  the  advocates  of  progress  or  the 
representatives  of  liberal  ideas.  The  Karaites — to  state  it 
briefly — are  the  corporeal  and  spiritual  posterity  of  the 
Sadducees;  they  are  the  antiquaries  of  that  time,  although 
by  force  of  peculiar  circumstances  many  a  bright  ray  illumi- 
nates them  and  many  a  fresh  thought  comes  forth  out  of 
them.  We  have  lost  sight  of  the  Sadducees ;  let  us  again  look 
back  at  them.  Their  permanency  had  ceased  with  the 
destruction  of  the  Temple.  They  had  once  been  the  priests, 
the  nobility,  the  ruling  class  joined  to  sacrificial  service  and 
Temple,  to  offices  and  administration.  All  that  was  thrown 
down  at  one  blow.  The  Sadducees  had  been  crowded 
toward  the  rear  in  many  ways  by  the  spiritual  energy  of  the 
Pharisees  during  the  existence  of  the  second  Temple.  Yet  a 
great  and  powerful  party  does  not  come  to  an  end  at  once. 


Karaites,  Awakening  of  Science  263 

We  hear  their  name  resound  in  later  centuries.  The  Tal- 
mudical  writings  speak  of  them  unwillingly.  And,  though 
they  intentionally  omit  them,  they  could  surely  tell  us  more 
about  them  than  they  do  in  their  scanty  accounts  where  the 
name  of  the  Sadducees  often  crops  out,  after  all.  Sacrificial 
worship  and  service  had  disappeared,  the  Temple  existed  no 
more,  but  differences  as  they  existed  in  practice  and  life 
between  Sadducees  and  Pharisees,  differences  in  customs  and 
ordinances  did  not  cease  altogether.  The  descendants  of  the 
Sadducees  had  kept  them  up  quite  seriously  among  themselves. 
They  had  no  literary  life  by  which  they  might  refresh  them- 
selves, but  they  vegetated  on,  unnoticed,  for  several  centuries. 

They  may  have  undergone  some  transformations,  par- 
ticularly relative  to  one  point  that  was  more  mental  and  did 
not  enter  practical  life.  The  hopes  of  the  future  had  formed 
one  point  of  dispute  between  Sadducees  and  Pharisees. 
While  the  latter  recognized  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  and 
longed  for  a  new  time  in  which  they  would  take  part  them- 
selves, expecting  an  invigoration  of  the  state  and  the  nation 
and  the  whole  religious  existence,  the  Sadducees  rejected  it. 
They  did  not  ask  that  conditions  should  undergo  a  transfor- 
mation, they  did  not  live  in  the  future,  the  present  was  satis- 
factory, and  good  enough  for  them.  But  matters  had 
changed  greatly.  The  present  was  no  longer  joyful  to  the 
Sadducees ;  on  the  contrary  they,  as  descendants  of  the  Patri- 
ciate, of  the  ruling  class,  must  feel  it  especially  deeply  and 
painfully  that  they  had  dropped  from  their  former  height. 
They  must  now,  too,  nourish  the  hope  of  a  new  future  with 
a  restoration  of  the  old,  brilliant  conditions  and  surrender 
their  protest  against  the  resurrection.  Thus  some  other 
transformations  may  have  happened.  In  still,  quiet  times, 
when  thought  is  not  quickened  and  stimulated,  many  demar- 
cations disappear  without  their  being  noticed,  and  there 
arises,  even  if  not  an  approach,  yet  a  grinding  away  of  con- 
trasts. That  probably  happened  in  the  case  of  the  Sad- 
ducees, and  centuries  pass  while  they  live  in  their  own  circle 
without  coming  forth. 

Then,  at  one  stroke,  a  new  time  enters,  a  fresh  breath 


264  Judaism  and  Its  History 

draws  through  them,  it  is  as  if  the  stiff  limbs  quiver,  as  if  a 
spirit  were  to  enter  the  dead  bones  to  revive  them.  Even 
the  scattered  and  wasting  remnant  feels  the  need  to  gather 
themselves  for  preservation  from  total  disappearance,  liberty 
gives  them  room  and  occasion.  The  convictions  of  every- 
body are  respected.  We  learn  from  dark,  fragmentary 
accounts  that  the  calif  expressly  gives  the  Karaites  permission 
to  constitute  themselves  into  a  sect.  The  desire  to  rouse 
themselves  into  their  ancient  peculiarity  had  grown  strong. 
The  name  Sadducees  had,  of  course,  become  disreputable; 
the  recollection  of  their  variations,  though  many  had  dis- 
appeared, was  still  alive.  Besides,  it  was  in  the  time,  that 
new  names  came  in  with  almost  every  century,  and  new 
conditions  are  indicated  by  them.  The  teachers  of  the  time 
of  the  Mishnah  were  called  Tannaim,  the  teachers;  those  of 
the  Gemara,  Amoraim,  the  speakers;  then  followed  the 
Saboraim,  the  givers  of  opinions;  and  then  came  the  Geonim, 
a  pompous  name,  probably  come  in  with  the  Arabians,  the 
Excellencies — names  designating  the  heads  of  the  schools  as 
they  were  given  under  the  different  conditions.  Thus  it  is 
not  astonishing  that  the  Sadducees,  too,  took  a  new  name, 
because  they  did  not  want  to  be  the  same  in  all  matters  of 
faith,  but  yet  desired  to  preserve  their  principles  in  practical 
life.  As  it  historically  appears,  they  were  at  first  called 
Ananites  after  the  name  of  their  founder.  Together  with  the 
adoption  of  many  variations  from  the  opinions  of  Anan,  the 
name  of  Karaites  was  gradually  accepted  for  general  use. 

The  Karaites  are  spiritual  and  corporeal  descendants  of 
the  Sadducees,  The  same  postulates  as  we  in  part  know 
them  completely  from  the  fragmentary  accounts  of  the  latter 
and  in  part  can  reconstruct  them,  are  again  found  with  the 
Karaites  but  with  a  certain  accentuation  and  more  decided 
consistency  which  then  again  weakens  in  the  course  of  time. 
The  Sadducees  had  attributed  decided  importance  to  sac- 
rifices; the  Karaites  of  course  could  no  longer  do  that,  for 
sacrificial  service  had  ceased  with  the  destruction  of  the 
Temple.  But  after  its  loss,  individuals  who  were  close  to  the 
principles  of  the  Sadducees,  arose  and  said,  *'From  now  on, 


Karaites  265 

we  may  not  use  meat  nor  wine  for  of  both  a  certain  amount 
must  be  given  as  dues  to  the  Temple  and  as  that  can  not  be 
done  while  the  altar  is  lacking,  the  use  of  meat  and  wine  is 
prohibited."  The  Pharisees  opposed  that  and  won  the 
victory.  With  the  very  appearance  of  the  Karaites,  we  hear 
that  they  prohibit  the  use  of  meat  while  in  exile.  Of  course, 
the  prohibition  does  not  last  long.  In  the  course  of  centuries 
it  disappears,  but  just  at  first  when  the  time  next  reveals  the 
historic  impulse,  it  comes  forth  with  marked  decision.  But 
even  then,  when  that  decision  weakened  and  the  insistence 
on  the  Temple  service  slackened,  we  find  that  they  observe 
the  rabbinical  regulations  for  the  killing  of  cattle,  with  great 
severity  and  even  go  beyond  them.  How  do  they  arrive  at 
that?  They  who  consulted  the  letter  of  the  bible,  found  no 
indication  of  regulations  for  killing  which  have  their  founda- 
tion only  in  the  Talmudical  tradition  and  interpretation. 
But  evidently  the  entire  proceeding  of  ritual  killing  is  taken 
from  the  custom  in  use  by  the  priests  at  the  killing  of  the 
sacrificed  animals.  It  was  a  real  Sadducean  custom  that 
came  into  use  at  their  public  repasts  and  which  the  Pharisees 
adopted  in  their  struggle  for  priestly  consecration.  Of  course 
the  Karaites  had  to  adjudge  such  regulations  as  obligatory. 
On  the  other  side,  it  would  have  been  natural  with  a  schism 
just  then  appearing,  to  retain  the  element  of  religious  life, 
the  divine  worship  with  its  corresponding  forms  which, 
though  not  ordered  by  the  bible,  yet  had  sufficient  warrant 
in  it  and  had  grown  to  fill  a  want  of  the  whole  community. 
But  it  does  not  suit  the  Karaites.  They  can  not  object  to 
divine  service  and  prayer;  but  they  rejected  the  quickening, 
inspiring  part  of  the  accepted  forms,  and  put  together  a  few 
scanty,  disconnected  verses  of  the  bible,  dry  and  cold  in  that 
arrangement.  That  was  because  they  had  kept  away  from 
the  labors  of  the  Pharisees  for  such  divine  worship,  and  it 
had  never  become  a  living  element  with  them.  But  cleanness 
and  uncleanness  were  upheld  with  minute  exactness  by  all 
classes  who  either  were  of  the  priesthood  or  considered  them- 
selves close  to  it.  The  Pharisees  gradually  modified  and 
alleviated   those  regulations,   and   when   the   Temple  went 


266  Judaism  and  Its  History 

down,  they  departed  from  them  to  a  very  great  extent  and 
considered  them  inapplicable.  The  Karaites  hold  to  them 
with  tenacity  in  all  their  severity.  In  relation  to  prohibition 
of  certain  parts  of  the  fat  and  the  use  which  might  be  made 
of  the  meat  of  cattle  that  were  not  killed  according  to  the 
regulations,  there  were  disputes  between  the  Sadducees  and 
the  Pharisees  which  were  completely  inherited  by  the  Karaites 
without  the  letter  of  the  Scripture  indicating  any  decision  in 
favor  of  either  party. 

In  many  customs  relating  to  the  sabbath  and  the  holidays, 
Sadducees  and  Pharisees  differed  widely;  the  Sadducean  usage 
being  more  severe  and  gloomy,  although  they  may  not  have 
held  such  severity  obligatory  on  themselves  and  their  priestly 
functions,  the  Pharisean  rules  being  to  alleviate  in  many 
cases.  Thus  the  Pharisees  placed  great  importance  upon 
consecrating  the  sabbath  with  bright  illumination,  which  is 
sensible  and  fit.  But  they  insisted  so  much  more  strongly 
and  attributed  special  value  to  the  sabbath  lights  because  the 
Sadducees  asserted  that  the  verse,  "Ye  shall  kindle  no  fire 
in  your  dwellings  on  the  sabbath  day,'*  prohibited  not  only 
the  kindling  but  also  the  burning  of  fire  or  lights.  The 
Karaites  followed  blindly  after  the  Sadducees  and  carried  on 
a  bitter  fight  with  the  Rabbinites  about  their  using,  on  the 
sabbath,  the  lamps  which  had  been  lit  before.  The  Pharisees 
endeavored  to  make  the  ordinances  conform  to  the  needs  of 
actual  life,  often  against  the  literal  meaning  of  the  Scripture. 
The  verse,  *'No  one  shall  go  from  his  place  on  the  seventh 
day,'*  had  formerly  been  interpreted  that  only  very  short 
journeys  were  permitted  on  the  sabbath  and  in  like  manner  the 
carrying  of  any  burden  outside  of  the  house  had  been  strictly 
prohibited.  The  Pharisees  managed  to  increase  the  distance  by 
fictitious  joining  of  the  spaces  and  to  extend  the  "house"  within 
which  things  might  be  carried,  by  the  "Erub,"  an  alleviation 
which  of  course  rested  on  a  legal  fiction  but  which  was  proper  for 
the  needs  of  the  people.  The  Sadducees  disputed  the  matter; 
and  the  Karaites  followed  and  abused  the  Rabbinites — as  the 
Pharisees  were  called  from  this  time,  as  followers  of  the  rabbis 
(teachers) — for  daring  to  get  around  the  ordinances  by  cunning. 


Karaites  267 

The  Sadducees,  or  at  least  a  part  of  them,  the  Boethusians, 
asserted  that  the  feast  of  weeks  (Shabuoth)  should  be  cele- 
brated on  Sunday,   not  seven  weeks  after  Passover.     The 
Pharisees  oppose  that  with  all  decision ;  they  even  arrange  the 
counting  of  the  days  from  Passover  until  the  feast  of  weeks 
so  that  each  day  there  was  specially  pronounced:     This  is 
the  day  of  such  number,  not  another  day,  as  the  Boethusians 
claim.     The  Karaites  follow  the  Boethusians  and  decide  that 
the  feast  of  weeks  must  be  celebrated  on  Sunday.     But  in 
the  meantime,  as  already  mentioned,  the  divergence  had  been 
aggravated   and   extended   over   the   whole   calendar.     The 
calendar  had  been  fixed  according  to  new  principles  in  Baby- 
lonia, no  longer  dependent  upon  the  actual  visibility  of  the 
new  moon,  but  according  to  calculation  with  the  addition  of 
some  regulations  demanded  by  practical  life.     New  moons 
and  festivals  were  fixed  for  all  time  without  the  necessity  of 
sending  out  messengers  to  observe  the  appearance  of  the  moon. 
Scripture   gives   no   indication   how  new  moons   should  be 
appointed,  calculating  them  found  no  objection  in  Scripture. 
But  it  was  not  in  use  in  olden  time  from  which  the  custom  had 
come  down,  to  see  the  new  moon  and  to  proclaim  its  appearance 
by  witnesses.     It  is  quite  in  the  manner  of  the  Sadducees  not 
to  make  use  of  calculation  because  it  was  not  ancient  and  had 
been  produced  by  the  development  of  the  times ;  and  actually 
the  Karaites  point  with  all  decision  to  the  old  custom  and 
cling  to  it.    Triumphantly  they  relate  that  the  Rabbinites  had 
once  celebrated  New  Year's  Day  while  the  old  moon  was  still 
visible.     The  Rabbinites  pay  no  attention  to  that;  they  stick 
properly  to  the  time  fixed  by  calculation,  which  must  keep 
its  validity  to  prevent  uncertainty.    And  they  care  nothing  for 
the  narrowminded  mockery  of  the  Karaites,  those  literal  anti- 
quaries.    I  might  add  many  things  which  verify  the  complete 
agreement  of  Karaitism  and  Sadduceeism  and  plainly  prove  that 
Karaitism  did  not  proceed  from  a  want  for  progress,  but  rather 
from  a  demand  for  standing  still.    I  might  say,  out  of  the  needs 
of  the  reactionaries,  for  they  felt  a  need  of  fortifying  them- 
selves for  standing  still  and  for  preserving  themselves  against 
the  energy  of  development  that  was  moving  through  the  time. 


268  Judaism  and  Its  History 

History  always  repeats  itself  in  this,  that  just  in  times 
when  healthy  life  breaks  through  the  entire  mass  and  quickens 
it,  when  it  is  to  be  expected  that  development  moves  vic- 
toriously through  all  classes,  those  who  convulsively  want  to 
cling  to  the  old,  feel  within  themselves  the  demand  to  get 
closer  together  and  secede,  lest  the  new  life  enter  their  ranks. 
They  must  now  group  themselves  more  closely  and  insist  on 
their  principles  with  more  marked  consistency  and  greater 
emphasis  than  had  been  done.  While  they  did  not  cry  out 
before  in  the  current  and  even  drifted  along,  now  they  must 
rouse  themselves,  their  protest  must  sound  aloud,  their 
resistance  must  be  strengthened.  He  that  should  consider 
such  noisy  demonstration  of  reaction  as  a  relapse  of  the  time, 
is  much  in  error.  On  the  contrary,  that  shrill  dissonance  of 
reaction,  that  seeming  retreat  of  the  time,  is  the  most  eloquent 
testimony  for  the  power  of  the  development  and  progress 
which  seizes  all.  Thus  the  appearance  of  Karaitism  was  the 
sign  of  the  lively  currents  of  the  time. 

Of  course  Karaitism  contained  in  part  also,  healthier 
elements.  Let  us  not  forget  that  the  development  which 
had  not  affected  it,  may  not  be  called  a  wholly  clear  and  clean 
one.  It  had  gone  on  in  dark  and  gloomy  times.  The 
changes  of  Scripture  by  interpretation,  as  they  were  made  by 
Talmudism  and  Rabbinism,  did  not  agree  at  all  with  a  reason- 
able conception  of  the  word.  When  the  Karaites  returned 
closer  to  the  letter  of  Scripture,  they  stimulated  a  study  of 
the  bible,  which  became  very  fertile.  But  they  only  stimu- 
lated, the  fruits  were  not  ripened  by  them.  It  is  a  remark- 
able phenomenon  that  just  those  men  who  looked  only  to 
the  letter  and  regarded  only  the  Scripture  as  their  canonical 
book,  who  held  to  it  to  the  exclusion  of  the  later  works,  and 
should  therefore  be  the  more  zealous  to  study  and  investigate 
it,'  that  those  men  yet  achieved  nothing  important  in  explain- 
ing the  Scriptures,  that  they  stand  far  behind  the  Rabbinites, 
have  to  learn  much  from  these,  and  finally  are  weakening 
and  wasting  away.  That  fine  peculiarity  which  Phariseeism 
and  its  rejuvenation,  Rabbinism,  show,  viz.,  to  enter  always 
full  and  fresh  into  the  course  of  mental  and  spiritual  develop- 


Awakening  of  Science  269 

ment  with  perfect  clinging  to  its  own  principles,  it  appears 
very  little  in  Karaitism.  We  find  in  their  more  recent  writ- 
ings only  repetition  of  what  the  older  ones  have  developed. 
That  other  fine  exhibition  of  living  energy  in  Judaism,  to 
settle  everywhere  and  to  be  able  to  feel  at  home  everywhere, 
to  move  along  everywhere  where  new  soil  becomes  accessible, 
to  draw  nourishment  from  that  soil  as  well  as  to  carry  there 
its  own  spiritual  seed,  that  fine  exhibition  of  the  life  of  Juda- 
ism which  reveals  general  human  character — it  is  wanting  in 
the  Karaites;  they  cling  to  the  old  soil  from  which  they  can 
not  part.  They  cling  first  to  Palestine,  and  although  they 
had  for  awhile  a  colony  in  Spain,  they  spread  only  in  the 
Orient.  They  live  to-day  in  Eastern  countries  and  can  not 
get  loose  from  them.  Still,  now  and  then  a  new  motion  is 
noticed  among  them,  but  it  seems  as  breathed  over  from 
Rabbinism. 

Thus  that  new  schism  is  of  course  evidence  of  a  newly- 
awakened  spirit,  even  if  only  by  its  contrast.  Yet  the  spirit 
was  wide  awake  and  showed  itself  in  the  development  of 
Rabbinical  Judaism.  Right  in  the  first  period  when  the  new 
literature  of  the  Arabian  began,  we  see  Jews  taking  part  as 
translators,  grammarians,  astronomers,  physiologists,  phy- 
sicians. In  the  seventh  century  already,  in  the  same  century 
in  which  the  new  religion  arose,  we  meet  Masdershvai,  a 
Jewish  scholar  who  translated  and  elaborated  mathematical 
works;  also  Mashallah,  who  has  a  place  of  importance  as 
astronomer  and  astrologer;  Sahl  al  Taberi,  and  many  others 
who  appear  among  the  first  founders  of  the  new  literature 
and  may  be  called  the  fathers  of  the  new  culture.  Soon  they 
do  not  remain  at  collaboration  in  which  the  Jews  were  but 
part  in  the  multitude,  but  they  carry  the  science  over  into 
Judaism,  giving  it  Hebrew  dress.  From  that  time,  works 
exist  which  have  been  rediscovered  in  recent  times  and  which 
are  now  recognized  as  belonging  to  that  period,  breathing 
the  Arabian  spirit,  and  showing  how  active  the  scientific 
spirit  was  among  the  Jews.  The  astronomical  work  of  one 
Samuel  belongs  to  the  ninth  century.  A  work  on  mathe- 
matics and  geometry  by  one  Rabbi  Nathan  in  forty-nine 


270  Judaism  and  Its  History 

paragraphs,  also  called  the  Mishnah  of  the  forty-nine  meters, 
also  belongs  to  that  time. 

We  meet  also  a  philosophical  work  peculiarly  interlaced 
with  Jewish  views.  Philosophy  was  very  soon  cultivated 
among  the  Arabians,  at  first  that  branch  of  philosophy  which 
was  more  in  agreement  with  the  imagination.  The  neo- 
platonic  and  neo-pythagorean  were  the  branches  which  were 
first  followed  with  favor.  Only  later,  Aristotle  became  the 
autocrat  in  philosophy  among  the  Arabians,  and  during  the 
whole  Middle  Ages.  The  neo-pythagorean  branch  had  had 
peculiar  charms  for  that  time.  Its  fundamental  element  is 
the  number  as  something  least  concrete,  something  belonging 
to  pure  perception  without  sensible  wrap,  an  idea  without  a 
body,  a  contemplation  without  sensibility.  This  branch 
takes  the  Arabians,  and  a  remarkable  Jewish  work  of  the 
eighth  or  ninth  century  appears  wholly  in  such  dress.  The 
ten  digits  and  the  twenty-two  letters  of  the  Hebrew  alphabet, 
so  teaches  that  booklet  about  creation  {Yezirah),  are  the 
instrument,  the  element,  out  of  which  God  formed  the  world. 
They  are  a  breath,  a  perception,  with  all  their  generality,  yet 
the  expression  for  everything  physical;  they  are  reflected  in 
everything.  As  they  become  firm  and  express  themselves 
visibly,  they  are  the  first  elements  of  creation,  of  existence. 
These  conceptions  were  dressed  up  with  many  more  explicit 
Jewish  definitions  and  worked  out  into  a  philosophical  system 
which  later  gave  occasion  for  many  mystical  dreamings, 
although  that  little  old  book  is  not  so  fantastical  and  chimeri- 
cal. These  ten  digits  (Sefirahs)  were  in  the  cabala — the  later 
Jewish  mysticism — conjointly  with  the  twenty-two  letters  of 
the  Hebrew  alphabet,  the  thirty-two  paths  of  wisdom  in 
which  it  dreamingly  promenades.  Yet  the  little  book  which 
forms  the  fulcrum  for  this  and  similar  fantasms  is  innocent 
of  all  that.  It  rather  appears  as  a  serious  philosophical 
attempt,  a  first  start  for  later  real  philosophical  works. 

Scientific  endeavors  go  more  closely  into  the  real  contents 
of  Judaism.  Soon  after  the  rise  of  Islam,  the  Arabians  had 
zealously  worked  at  fixing  their  language  and  its  grammar, 
especially  at  a  visible  presentation  of  the  vowels.    They  had 


Vowel  Marks  and  Punctuation  271 

started  serious  labors  as  to  how  the  Koran  should  be  read 
in  public.  Like  all  Semitic  languages,  the  Arabic  has  in  its 
writings  originally  only  the  skeleton;  i.  e.,  only  the  con- 
sonants are  shown  by  letter,  the  life-giving  breath  which  gives 
them  various  meanings,  the  vowels,  are  not  written  originally. 
But  when  the  Arabians  became  a  literary  people  with  a 
Scripture,  a  holy  book,  it  soon  was  of  importance  that  the 
sound  should  be  definitely  fixed  lest  various  pronunciations 
should  enter  the  holy  book  and  thus  obscure  or  even  pervert 
its  contents.  Thus  the  Arabians  acquired  vowel  signs  which 
presented  the  three  basic  sounds.  Grammar  schools  arose  in 
different  countries  of  the  empire.  The  Jews  did  not  remain 
idle  spectators.  Long  ago  the  text  of  their  Scriptures  and  of 
many  other  books  had  been  reduced  to  writing,  but  they  had 
been  satisfied  with  the  consonants,  and  the  fixity  of  the  pro- 
nunciation had  been  left  to  oral  tradition.  When  the  Arabians 
invented  their  vowel  marks,  the  Jewish  schools  began  to 
work  for  the  same  end  for  their  Scriptures  and  that  with  a 
zeal  and  care  yet  surpassing  the  Arabians.  Even  the  least 
variation  of  the  sound  was  fixed  by  some  sign  and  the  vocali- 
zation was  shaped  by  a  thoroughgoing  system.  In  fact,  two 
different  systems  arose,  one  in  Babylonia  and  the  other  in 
Palestine.  The  latter  prevailed  and  is  in  use  to-day.  If  we 
consider  those  labors  expended  upon  the  inherited  holy 
treasures,  they  furnish  the  best  evidence  of  the  mental  and 
spiritual  industry  and  the  scientific  earnestness  which  pre- 
vailed at  that  time. 

The  Arabians  are  a  people  fond  of  poetry  and  song.  But 
poetry  among  them  is  shown  more  in  frequent  return  of  the 
sounds  than  by  depth  of  sentiment  and  vigor  of  the  idea. 
Like  children,  they  like  the  fine,  full  sound  that  comes  out 
in  their  language  which  is  rich  in  vowels;  and  thus  they  come 
to  practice  rhyming.  In  their  poetic  pieces  the  same  rhyme 
is  repeated  innumerable  times.  One  Kasside  runs  along 
with  the  same  rhyme,  even  if  it  has  a  hundred  strophes;  and 
in  other  poems  which  have  a  diversity  of  rhymes,  they  prefer 
to  have  the  rhymes  repeated.  They  also  delight  in  bold 
images.     The  flight  of  fancy  in  their  poems  often  iQses  all 


272  Judaism  and  Its  History 

measure,  mocks  the  discipline  of  the  thought  and  the  clearness 
of  the  conception,  the  shape  of  the  image  is  in  a  far-off  fog. 
The  Hebrew  language  and  conception  begin  differently. 
Standing  with  its  vocalization  in  the  middle,  between  the 
scanty  Aramaic  and  the  richer  Arabic,  it  does  not  give  prefer- 
ence to  ringing  sound,  it  did  not  know  rhyme  at  all  and  did 
not  seek  for  a  terminal  ring  of  the  sound,  but  rather  for  the 
rounding  out  of  the  thought.  It  liked  to  repeat  the  idea  to 
be  expressed,  in  various  ways  and  to  illuminate  it  on  all  sides. 
That  is  the  parallelism  of  the  lines,  where  two  parts  of  a 
sentence  present  one  idea,  but  in  different  lights,  sometimes 
by  contrast,  sometimes  by  repetition,  but  always  so  that  it 
comes  out  in  sharper  outline.  The  later  prayers  which  we 
have  from  the  first  centuries  after  the  destruction  of  the 
Temple,  still  carry  that  biblical  form  without  using  any 
rhyme.  But  now  the  Jews  were  living  among  the  Arabians; 
sound  bribes  the  ear,  the  flight  of  fancy  carries  along  and  they 
tried  to  do  like  the  Arabians.  Of  course  it  did  not  succeed 
particularly  at  first.  There  were  imitations  carrying  over 
the  peculiarity  of  one  language  into  the  other  one  which, 
though  closely  related,  yet  has  its  own  characteristics  that 
may  not  be  infringed  upon.  Nor  was  the  taste  sufficiently 
purified  to  find  the  proper  mean.  Rhyme  was  used  in  endless 
repetition  in  the  new  liturgical  poems,  artificial  turns  were 
purposely  looked  up  with  the  intent  to  imitate  the  pomp  of 
words.  Unheard-of  wrenching  of  words,  bold,  new  forma- 
tions which  attempted  something  transcendant  but  turned 
out  shapeless  and  uncouth,  are  surprising  but  lack  all  poetic 
grace. 

Elasar  Ben  Kalir,  a  man  in  Palestine,  probably  of  the 
eighth  or  ninth  century,  composed  a  great  number  of  poetic 
prayers  for  the  holidays  containing  a  mass  of  sound  figures, 
prayers  in  which  the  words  with  the  same  endings  are  con- 
stantly repeated,  in  which  the  boldest  new  formations  are 
used  without  regard  to  whether  they  are  correctly  shaped 
grammatically  or  justified  etymologically.  A  verse  was 
considered  the  more  poetical,  the  more  artificial  and  bom- 
bastic it  was.     It  was  an  effect  of  the  time,  an  assumption  of 


Criticism  of  the  Bible  273 

the  character  of  Arabianism,  without  the  intelligent  judgment 
and  labor  which  a  later  time  applied  to  such  adaptations 
as  the  Spanish  school  presents  artistically.  If  such 
attempts  brought  no  gain,  nor  offer  any  ripe  fruit  of  mental 
activity,  yet  we  perceive  in  them  the  endeavor  to  appropriate 
all  mental  treasures  of  the  environment.  When  in  our 
modern  days,  those  jingling  sound  figures  are  in  the  houses 
of  worship  still  offered  to  our  eyes  and  ears,  when  those 
cumbersome  prayers  for  dew  and  rain  are  still  recited  with 
their  inharmonic  rhymes,  their  hard  words  and  their  uncom- 
prehended  contents,  it  is  the  result  of  the  same  want  of 
thought  which  keeps  up  a  prayer  in  the  Chaldean  language 
for  the  well-being  of  the  princes  of  the  exile  (the  Geonim) 
who  no  longer  exist.  But  for  those  times  in  which  those 
prayers  originated,  we  recognize  in  that  laborious  work  an 
unconscious  impulse  which  desires  to  join  into  the  ruling 
culture. 

The  philosophical  culture  of  the  time  burrows  much 
deeper.  Even  doubters  and  critical  investigators  appear. 
It  sounds  rather  dark  but  we  know  enough  of  it  to  be  able 
to  announce  their  existence  with  certainty.  Among  other 
names,  one  Chivi  of  Balk  in  Persia  is  quoted  as  a  man  of 
such  bold  sayings  that  we  should  hardly  expect  them  for 
that  time.  Not  only  that  he  disputes  creation  out  of  nothing, 
that  he  asserts  the  world  was  shaped  out  of  original  matter; 
not  only  that  he  says  about  sacrifices,  "Why  offer  sacrifices 
to  the  eternal  God,  for  what  purpose  were  Temple  and 
lamps?"  but  also  about  the  miraculous  in  the  Scripture,  he 
speaks  in  a  manner  as  it  was  never  more  boldly  used  by  the 
later  men  who  attempted  to  explain  the  miracles  in  a  natural 
way.  Thus  for  instance,  he  explains  that  the  passage  of  the 
Red  Sea  was  made  at  low  ebb;  the  manna  he  regards  as  a 
gum  yielded  by  the  trees  in  the  desert;  he  does  not  believe 
that  the  face  of  Moses  became  shining,  to  him  the  expression 
appears  to  mean  that  from  long  fasting  his  skin  had  become 
hornlike.  Such  explanations  are  sober  enough  and  do  not 
fit  the  spirit  of  the  Scriptures,  but  at  any  rate,  they  show  a 
bold  frankness.    And  this  man  was  not  the  only  one;  it  is 


274  Judaism  and  Its  History 

related  that  his  explanations  were  introduced  into  schools, 
which  shows  that  he  was  not  abused  as  a  heretic;  on  the 
contrary,  he  must  have  passed  as  a  respectable  scholar  and 
have  found  decided  adherents. 

That  was  a  time  of  full  and  many-sided  stimulation. 
Only  the  Talmudic  schools  could  not  properly  follow  the  spirit 
of  the  time.  At  the  center  of  the  religious  life  there  was 
weakness,  among  the  Geonim  there  were  no  men  of  import- 
ance; their  academies  could  not  produce  them.  And  thus  a 
conflict  between  science  and  religion  threatened  to  arise;  it 
was  avoided  for  the  time. 


VI. 

Saadias. 

About  the  end  of  the  ninth  and  the  beginning  of  the  tenth 
century,  the  mental  currents  in  the  Eastern  Arabian  Empire 
rose  high,  the  floods  washed  also  around  the  rock  of  Talmudism 
which  lay  right  in  the  middle  of  this  movement ;  they  did  not 
shake  it,  but  their  roaring  sound  frightened  all  around  it. 
Just  in  the  interior  of  the  Eastern  Arabian  Empire  were  the 
old  academies  as  they  had  grown  up  from  the  Babylonian- 
Parthian  time  with  the  formation  of  the  Babylonian  Talmud, 
and  had  become  fixed  with  determinative  influence,  Sora  and 
Pumbeditha — the  latter  city  quite  close  to  Bagdad — at  which 
the  teachers  had  gathered  numerous  students  and  whence 
they  spread  their  decisions  into  all  countries.  Under  Arabian 
rule,  the  inherited  Jewish  constitution  had  reached  a  high 
importance  and  great  regard.  A  Chief  of  the  Exile,  Rosh 
Galuth,  invested  with  a  certain  amount  of  political  power  and 
the  dignity  of  governor,  presided  over  the  Jews  of  the  vast 
empire,  collected  the  taxes  from  them,  and  enjoyed  in  this  way, 
great  respect.  The  teachers  at  the  two  above-named  academ- 
ies were  the  religious  chiefs.  After  the  close  of  the  Babylonian 
Talmud,  they  went  by  the  name  Sahoraim,  "givers  of 
opinions,"  but  now  in  the  Arabian  period  we  find 
them  designated  by  the  pompous  name  Geonim,  "the  Excel- 
lencies," and  the  power  of  the  empire  as  well  as  the  liberty 
accorded  to  all  inhabitants  even  to  those  not  avowing  Islam, 
gave  to  the  academies  and  their  chiefs  higher  dignity.  They 
appeared  in  public  with  splendor,  surrounded  by  guards  who 
accompanied  them.  Their  lectures,  which  they  delivered 
only  at  stated  times,  were  regarded  as  important  events  and 
were  preceded  by  special  ceremonies.  Thus  the  Geonim 
were  respected  not  only  as  scholars  but  also  as  spiritual 
dignitaries  and  chiefs  of  the  entire  religious  union.     In  spite 


276  Judaism  and  Its  History 

of  all  that,  the  intrinsic  importance  of  those  teachers  did  not 
correspond  to  the  high  mental  movement  of  the  time.  They 
kept  within  their  antiquarian,  theological,  Talmudical 
dominion,  and  even  there  they  do  not  appear  as  fertile 
authors.  We  have  works  of  Acha  of  Shabecha  and  of  Simon 
of  Cahira,  but  they  never  held  the  office  of  Gaon.  Of  the 
Geonim  we  have  little  to  show;  mostly  decisions,  answers  to 
questions  which  were  addressed  to  them  from  all  countries. 
Only  a  few  individuals  stand  out.  We  learn  of  one  Judai  Gaon 
who  attempted  to  fix  Halachoth  (conclusions  or  customs); 
and  of  Zemach  Ben  Paltoi  who  made  a  weak,  pioneer  attempt 
to  compose  a  kind  of  Talmudical  dictionary.  Amram  Ben 
Sheshna  sends  a  complete  liturgy  to  Spain  with  the  regulations 
to  be  observed  at  prayer.  Those  are  about  all  the  scanty 
literary  products  from  the  academies.  The  schools  were 
weak,  and  became  so  low  that  even  in  the  Talmudical  branch, 
the  most  important  men  did  not  head  them.  Ambition  had 
cast  its  eye  upon  those  spiritual  dignities  and  many  a  rich 
dilettante  aspired  to  occupy  that  position  and  succeeded  in 
getting  it. 

Thus  the  gaonate  decreased  in  value  and  importance,  but 
the  times  demanded  something  else.  It  was  felt  that  the 
whole  structure  would  break  down  if,  while  science  was  rising 
everywhere,  religion  should  remain  in  its  old  shape  and  waste 
more  and  more.  And  a  man  was  looked  for  who,  as  a  son  of 
his  time,  could  also  be  accepted  as  an  able  scholar,  learned  in 
the  Talmud.  Such  a  man  was  found  about  the  first  half  of 
the  tenth  century,  near  930,  in  Saadias  Ben  Joseph,  called 
Said  in  Arabic.  He  did  not  belong  to  the  Babylonian  schools 
and  had  not  resided  in  Babylonia,  but  was  an  Egyptian,  born 
in  Fasum  in  892.  He  had  become  known  in  many  ways. 
He  was  of  a  virile  nature  and  full  of  a  desire  to  reconcile  the 
differences,  yet  at  the  same  time  to  oppose  his  whole  force 
to  any  obstinate  opinions  that  tended  to  prevail,  with  rigor 
and  determination.  As  a  young  man  of  twenty-three  he 
appears  to  have  composed  an  argument  against  Anan,  of 
which  we  have  not  even  a  fragment.  Possessing  little 
mentally  creative  power,  he  was  a  man  of  broad  and  wide 


Saadias  277 

knowledge,  eager  to  bend  aside  the  points  in  order  that  the 
varying  tendencies  might  tolerate  each  other  and  cause  no 
wounds.  Saadias  himself,  in  some  of  his  writings,  places 
before  us  the  principles  which  determine  the  course  of  his 
ideas. 

Scripture,  tradition,  and  reason,  are  the  sources  of  knowl- 
edge and  these  three  have  their  full  validity  and  form  com- 
plete unity.  Scripture  is  to  him  the  complete  expression  of 
reason  and  he  not  only  finds  nothing  contradictory  to  reason 
in  it,  but  on  the  contrary  he  goes  so  far  as  to  propose  the 
question,  for  what  purpose  revelation  was  given,  since  it 
completely  corresponds  to  reason,  and  its  announcements 
could  and  must  be  found  as  well  by  reason.  His  answer  is: 
"They  correspond  perfectly  to  each  other,  their  contents 
coincide,  but  revelation  had  the  purpose  to  bring  the  con- 
tents which  reason  could  but  slowly  dig  out,  sooner  into 
reality.  Long  periods  would  have  to  elapse  before  mankind 
would  have  been  led  up  by  its  own  reason.  Revelation 
hastened  the  process  of  thinking.  Scripture,  tradition,  and 
reason,  are,  accordingly,  the  three  sources  of  knowledge  and 
are  in  complete  agreement  with  one  another,  because  they  are 
born  out  of  the  same  divine  mind.  They  are  simply  shaped 
in  different  modes  of  expression,  but  are  alike  in  their  real 
contents.  Accordingly,  Scripture  must  agree  perfectly  with 
reason,  and  such  objections  as  are  made  by  bold  rationalists 
as  we  have  heard  them  from  Chivi  of  Balk,  he  rejects  in 
different  ways. 

According  to  Saadias,  it  is  not  at  all  repugnant  to  reason 
that  God  should  miraculously  interfere  with  his  almightiness. 
Miracle,  as  emanation  of  divine  power,  is  in  his  opinion  not 
in  contradiction  with  the  otherwise  general  and  regular 
operations  of  the  laws  of  nature  and  therefore  not  in  contra- 
diction with  reason.  If  he  solves  that  question,  which  is  still 
pending  nine  centuries  after  him,  in  such  manner,  we  must 
not  consider  him  for  that,  an  opponent  of  knowledge  by 
reason.  But  there  are  some  miracles  which  contradict  all 
reason  and  natural  law  with  a  certain  directness,  as  when  the 
serpent  speaks  to  Eve,  or  the  ass  to  Balaam.    Such  a  miracle 


278  Judaism  and  Its  History 

changes  the  whole  nature  of  those  animals;  there  is  not  a 
momentary  interruption  but  a  complete  upsetting  of  the  laws 
of  nature  and  reasoning  power.  When  in  modern  times  a 
representative  of  liberal  tendencies  points  to  such  examples 
for  his  assertion  that  Scripture  should  be  read,  not  according 
to  the  letter,  but  according  to  its  spiritual  meaning,  and 
addresses  to  his  adversaries  the  question  whether  they  really 
believe  that  Balaam's  ass  had  spoken,  and  they  answer  with 
a  loud  and  vigorous  yes,  Saadias  had  no  such  courage  to 
subject  reason  completely  to  faith.  "No,"  he  says,  "the 
serpent  never  spoke,  but  an  angel  pronounced  the  words  so 
that  it  appeared  to  Eve  as  if  the  serpent  had  spoken.  In  like 
manner,  God  caused  a  voice  to  be  heard  which  Balaam 
thought  came  from  the  ass."  All  divine  revelation  he  takes, 
not  as  a  visible  appearance  of  God  (for  everything  corporeal 
must  be  kept  out),  but  rather  as  hearing  a  voice  created  by 
God,  or  seeing  a  glimmer  of  light  produced  by  God,  therefore 
momentary  creations  for  the  definite  purpose  of  being  audible 
and  visible  to  the  prophet.  He  had  therefore  no  difficulty 
in  assuming  a  similar  proceeding  in  those  miracles.  But  how 
is  it  with  the  witch  of  Endor  when  she  conjures  up  Samuel  for 
Saul?  How  does  a  witch  acquire  such  power?  What  God 
may  do  for  accrediting  his  prophet  should  not  happen  for  the 
benefit  of  a  witch.  But  he  stands  by  his  opinion.  Saul  had 
provoked  confirmation  of  his  superstition  so  that  God  caused 
the  appearance  of  the  shade  of  Samuel  to  become  visible  to 
him  at  the  time  of  the  witch's  conjuration,  but  not  by  that. 
In  the  prolog  of  Job,  Satan  appears  as  the  accuser  of  Job. 
We  find  in  that  highly  poetic  representation  no  difficulty. 
We  know  how  to  take  poetry  as  poetical,  and  Goethe  did  not 
know  how  to  introduce  his  Faust  more  fittingly  than  by 
imitating  the  prolog  of  Job.  That  old  time  had  no  proper 
conception  of  the  poetical;  for  it,  that  poem  was  a  historical 
fact.  How  is  a  Satan,  a  bad  spirit,  to  be  imagined?  The 
superior  spirits  must  be  pure  and  perfectly  sinless,  a  bad 
spirit  is  to  Saadias  a  contradiction  in  itself.  Therefore 
Saadias  transfers  the  event  from  heaven  to  earth.  In  a 
company  of  excellent  men  who  admired  Job  for  his  virtue, 


Saadias  279 

there  was  a  doubter  who  found  fault  with  Job's  purity  and 
thus  became  his  accuser.  To  disprove  him,  the  divine  trial 
of  Job  is  made  that  he  may  prove  himself  true.  We  may 
consider  such  attempts  at  explanation  weak  and  insufficient 
and  yet  they  have  been  repeated  in  similar  manner  in  the 
course  of  the  centuries. 

Saadias  holds  decidedly  fast  to  freedom  of  human  will, 
and  where  an  expression  occurs  to  endanger  that  freedom  and 
seems  to  indicate  interference  by  God,  he  is  not  satisfied  to 
say  simply  that  the  expression  should  not  be  taken  too  liter- 
ally, but  he  rather  attempts  to  so  twist  it  that  the  threatening 
meaning  disappears.  For  instance,  if  we  read,  "The  king's 
heart  is  in  the  hands  of  the  Lord  as  the  rivers  of  water,  he 
turneth  it  whithersoever  he  will,"  this  sounds  as  if  God  puts 
the  thoughts  into  the  heart  of  man.  "No,"  says  Saadias, 
"such  is  not  the  meaning;  rather,  the  king's  heart  is  in 
divine  power;  i.  e.,  when  the  fear  of  God  fills  it  as  water  and 
rivers,  he  has  his  heart  and  his  passions  under  control  and  can 
turn  his  heart  whither  he  will." 

As  Saadias  tries  in  this  manner  to  make  Scripture  and 
reason  agree,  so  he  proceeds  also  in  regard  to  tradition.  Here 
it  was  important,  especially  in  opposition  to  the  Karaites  who 
emphasized  the  variation  between  the  word  of  the  Scripture 
and  the  development  of  law  as  it  was  shaped  in  Talmudical 
Judaism,  to  prove  that  such  variation  was  but  a  seeming  one, 
that  on  the  contrary,  tradition  and  the  word  of  Scripture 
express  the  same  thing.  The  admission  that  a  historic 
development  had  taken  place  which  produced  a  removal  from 
the  word  of  the  Scripture  and  transformed  its  regulations, 
was  repugnant  to  the  spirit  of  the  time,  in  spite  of  the  fact 
that  the  impulse  and  its  justification  were  deeply  inherent  in 
Judaism.  In  earlier  times  there  had  been  no  hesitation  to 
announce  that  the  court  has  the  right  to  tear  up  by  the  roots 
any  ordinance  which  was  no  longer  fitting  for  the  times  even 
if  written  in  the  bible.  It  had  been  acknowledged  that 
custom  and  practice  have  the  power  to  acquire  validity  even 
if  opposed  to  ordinances,  which  means  nothing  else  than  that 
the  development  of  the  time  as  it  shapes  itself  has  well- 


280  Judaism  and  Its  History 

grounded  validity  as  against  the  dead  letter.  That  could  be 
announced  without  hesitation  at  a  time  when  the  fight  against 
it  had  not  been  started  and  things  were  moving  in  still  self- 
confident  unconsciousness.  But  when  the  Karaites  came 
forward  with  their  contradictions  and  denied  the  right  of 
shaping  ordinances  against  the  divine  letter,  the  leaders 
shied,  and  Saadias  attempted  to  bring  all  ordinances,  as  they 
had  been  shaped  by  development  and  were  considered  tra- 
ditional, into  agreement  with  the  word  of  the  Scripture,  even 
to  find  them  in  it.     Let  us  consider  a  single  example. 

The  Scripture  says,  "When  two  brothers  reside  together, 
and  one  of  them  dies  without  leaving  children,  the  surviving 
brother  shall  take  the  widow  as  wife,  and  the  oldest  son 
produced  of  this  marriage  shall  take  the  dead  brother's  place 
and  inherit  his  possession."  The  ancient  Sadducees  and  the 
Karaites  like  them,  took  no  offense  at  this  regulation,  because 
it  permits  marriage  of  the  brother's  wife,  which  is  forbidden 
elsewhere;  and  they  applied  the  law  exclusively  to  the  be- 
trothed woman,  but  not  to  the  married  one.  Pharisees  and 
Rabbinites  were  closer  to  the  letter,  when  they  contended 
that  in  such  a  case  it  was  permitted  to  marry  the  wife  of  the 
deceased  brother.  But  in  course  of  time,  practice  among  the 
Rabbinites  had  changed  the  law.  If  the  bible  says,  "And  it 
shall  be  that  the  first-born  which  she  beareth  shall  succeed 
in  the  name  of  his  brother  which  is  dead"  (i.  e.,  he  should 
inherit  by  right  of  primogeniture),  the  actual  practice  had 
become  that  such  a  marriage  was  no  longer  considered  a  mere 
continuance  of  the  old  one,  but  an  entirely  new  one;  the 
husband  took  possession  of  the  inheritance  and  all  children 
proceeding  from  this  marriage  had  equal  shares,  the  first-born 
had  no  advantage  above  the  others.  But  upon  the  first- 
born, the  oldest  one  of  the  surviving  brothers,  the  obligation 
of  marrying  the  widow  was  to  rest.  The  Karaites  objected 
to  this  as  an  innovation  and  declared  it  contrary  to  Scripture 
and  unjustifiable.  Saadias  does  not  hesitate  to  attempt  to 
carry  the  new  practice  into  the  word  of  the  bible;  he  trans- 
lates: "That  the  first-born  to  whom  she  beareth,  he  shall 
succeed  in  the  name  of  his  brother" — so  that  the  word  "first- 


Saadias  281 

born"  does  not  mean  the  first  son  of  the  new  marriage  but 
the  oldest  of  the  brothers,  to  whom  the  widow  bears  children, 
and  he  takes  the  inheritance. 

We  have  before  mentioned  the  hot  fight  between  the 
Karaites  and  the  Rabbinites  about  the  regulation  of  the 
calendar.  Saadias  finds  here  also  a  way  out,  though  rather 
a  forced  one.  He  asserts  that  the  calculation  is  not  a  new 
thing;  that  both  calculation  and  observation  of  the  new  moon 
had  been  in  use  in  the  earliest  times,  and  if  both  are  not 
plainly  expressed  in  Scripture,  he  seeks  to  figure  them  out 
from  some  slight  indications.  The  violent  dispute  into 
which  he  enters  with  the  Karaites  about  this  matter  is  not 
a  particularly  successful  one.  Later  Rabbinites  admit  that 
Saadias  leant  upon  a  broken  reed.  But  at  the  time,  Saadias 
could  not  make  any  concession;  he  had  to  gather  all  forces 
together  to  support  the  customary  practice  in  a  rational 
manner  and  to  concede  the  proper  right  to  reason  without 
divesting  usage  of  its  sanctified  character.  Saadias  is  a 
theologian  of  reconciliation,  and  thus  a  perfect  son  of  his  time 
which  is  to  develop  a  stronger  period. 

That  he  was  a  man  of  his  time,  he  shows  also  by  this, 
that  he  wrote  all  his  works  in  the  language  of  his  country,  in 
Arabic.  So  long  as  religious  subjects  are  elaborated  and 
treated  in  the  customary  language  of  the  scholars,  in  which 
they  first  arose,  the  conceptions  are  the  customary  ones  and 
remain  the  old  ones.  They  are  like  the  coins  which  pass  from 
hand  to  hand,  the  value  of  which  is  accepted  according  to  their 
determined  coinage  without  questioning  what  their  actual 
value  might  be.  Religious  conceptions,  too,  pass  for  what 
they  were  formerly  claimed  to  be  and  appear  in  a  certain 
independence  as  long  as  they  are  pronounced  in  their  ancient 
language.  It  is  something  quite  different  when  the  language 
elaborates  from  the  home,  if  it  comes  forth  quick  and  alive 
from  the  pure  fountain  of  the  temper  and  spirit  with  which 
the  entire  life  is  in  connection;  then  thoughts  are  rejuvenated. 
It  is  not  sufficient  that  the  conceptions  be  customary,  they 
must  be  in  harmony  with  the  entire  mode  of  thinking  as  it 
runs  alon^  constantly  fresh  in  life.    When  Thomasius,  at  the 


282  Judaism  and  Its  History 

end  of  the  seventeenth  century,  first  delivered  his  lectures  in 
German  instead  of  the  Latin,  he  effected  by  that  as  much  as 
by  his  fight  against  the  belief  in  witches;  and  when  Saadias 
wrote  his  works  in  the  Arabic  language,  he  essentially  broke 
the  way  for  a  union  of  the  consciousness  of  the  time  with 
religious  custom,  even  if  he  did  not  effect  it  completely.  But 
he  did  more  yet,  he  made  an  Arabic  translation  of  the  bible. 
A  new  translation  of  the  bible — if  it  does  not  proceed  from 
purely  literary  endeavor,  if  it  is  worked  out  in  times  when 
the  activity  of  authors  is  not  a  trade  and  every  work  comes 
forth  in  response  to  an  actual  demand — every  such  transla- 
tion of  the  bible  is  the  revelation  of  a  changed  consciousness 
of  the  time,  the  expression  of  a  newly  recognized  desire  for 
better  connection  of  the  derived  religious  life  with  its  source. 
It  always  comes  forth  at  the  threshold  of  a  new  period  of 
time.  When  the  Greek-Alexandrian  Jews  wanted  to  bring 
their  ancient  religious  inheritance  into  a  certain  unison  with 
the  Greek  ideas  which  flowed  around  them,  the  Greek  Sep- 
tuagint  translation  came  forth  and  gave  the  impulse  to  a  new 
culture  in  Egypt.  When  Talmudism  had  acquired  firmness 
and  spread  afar,  the  Chaldec  translation  received  its  final 
touches  and  became  fixed  and  standard.  When  science 
attempted  to  penetrate  into  the  church  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
which,  sunk  into  ignorance,  was  moving  along  by  sheer 
momentum  and  had  lost  all  acquaintance  with  its  source — 
when  science  dared  the  attempt  to  throw  its  rays  into  the 
tightly-closed  portals  of  the  church,  Luther  arose  with  a  new 
translation  of  the  bible  which  became  the  banner  of  the  new 
time  and  the  new  tendency  grouped  itself  accordingly.  When 
in  Judaism  a  new  time  of  redemption  and  illumination  arrived, 
after  long  and  hard  oppression  had  enslaved  the  minds  and 
custom,  and  want  of  taste  had  held  dominion,  Mendelssohn 
inaugurated  that  new  period  with  his  translation  of  the  bible 
and  gave  it  a  definite  impression.  Such  a  translation  of  the 
bible  is,  therefore,  the  work  of  the  time,  and  he  that  under- 
takes it,  is  the  man  of  the  time  and  the  carrier  of  the  thought 
and  the  mental  forces  which  are  moving  the  time.  Such  a 
man  Stadias  was  top. 


Arabian  Translation  of  the  Bible  283 

Translations  of  such  a  kind  do  not  proceed  from  a  purely 
scientific  impulse,  but  from  a  religious  instinct,  from  the 
endeavor  to  arrange  a  union  of  the  new  thought  with  the  tra- 
ditional religious  conceptions  and  views.  They  are,  there- 
fore, not  built  on  strictly  scientific  principles.  And  if  the 
translation  can  not  stand  up  in  all  regards  before  the  judg- 
ment-seat of  science,  it  has  great  importance  in  that  it  is  the 
mirror  of  a  newly  awakened  consciousness,  and  as  it  arises 
from  attachment  to  the  faith  which  it  wants  to  reconcile  with 
arising  opposition,  so  it  is,  on  the  other  side,  the  product  of  a 
new  culture  for  which  it  becomes  a  strong  support,  and  which 
spreads  and  sanctions  it. 

In  addition  to  all  that,  Saadias  was  very  busy  as  Gaon, 
labored  in  the  Talmudical  field,  had  to  send  into  many 
countries  answers  and  decisions  upon  questions  addressed  to 
him,  and  composed  a  considerable  number  of  small  polemical 
writings.  He  was  mixed  up  in  many  disputes.  Of  a  virile 
nature,  he  was  not  easy  to  bend,  and  thus  had  to  fight  out 
a  long  quarrel  with  the  Chief  of  the  Exile,  David  Ben  Saccai, 
who  wanted  to  force  him  to  confirm  a  decision  which  he 
(Saadias)  considered  unjust,  so  that  he  was  divested  of  the 
Gaonate  during  seven  years,  and  had  to  keep  in  hiding.  A 
man  of  compromise  and  reconciliation,  and  yet  of  unbending 
sense  of  justice!  And  all  that,  he  accomplished  in  a  life 
which  lasted  but  fifty  years.  Such  a  man  is  well  worthy  to 
be  glorified,  a  man  of  valiant,  untiring  endeavor,  of  unbroken 
energy,  and  a  mind  filled  with  general  knowledge.  He  did 
not  carry  the  new  endeavors  to  completion,  but  he  gave 
stimulus  in  all  directions  and  thus  laid  the  foundations  for  a 
new  period. 

Yet  in  general,  the  Arabian  Empire  in  the  East  was  enter- 
ing its  decline.  As  the  sun  rises  in  the  east  but  moves  toward 
the  west,  so  too  in  the  history  of  mankind,  culture  starts  in 
the  East  and  spreads  toward  the  West  to  be  completed  there 
in  higher  development.  The  califate  of  Bagdad  paled  gradu- 
ally. The  califates  subordinate  to  it  acquired  their  inde- 
pendence and  developed  into  superior  powers,  and  power  is 
followed  by  mental  elevation,    We  soon  see  in  Northern 


284  Judaism  and  Its  History 

Africa,  rich  culture  arise.  Saadias,  too,  had  been  from 
Northern  Africa,  from  Egypt.  Cairo  had  become  an  im- 
portant gathering  place  of  intellect.  There  flourished  the 
contemporary  of  Saadias,  Isaac  Ben  Solomon,  also  called 
Israeli,  who  lived  nearly  a  hundred  years,  from  the  middle  of 
the  ninth  to  the  middle  of  the  tenth  century — one  of  the  most 
fertile  authors.  His  works  were  translated  from  the  Arabic 
into  the  Latin,  and  retained  their  supremacy  through  the 
entire  Middle  Ages.  Physician,  philosopher,  mathematician, 
and  astronomer,  he  had  accomplished  and  produced  much, 
judged  by  the  condition  of  the  time;  but  he  also  labored  in 
the  theological  field  and  he  also  attempted  to  explain  that 
neo-pythagorean  philosophical  little  book,  "Of  the  Creation," 
in  a  natural,  rational  way.  He  busied  himself,  too,  with 
interpretation  and  explanation  of  the  Scripture  and  proba- 
bility indicates  that  he  is  the  "Isaaki"  in  whose  name  many 
critical  opinions  are  quoted.  Among  other  things,  Isaaki 
asserts  that  the  passage,  "And  these  are  the  kings  that 
reigned  in  the  land  of  Edom  before  there  reigned  any  king 
over  the  children  of  Israel"  (Genesis  xxxvi,  31),  after  which  eight 
generations  are  named,  was  written  at  the  time  of  Josaphat, 
one  of  the  later  kings  of  Juda,  and  not  by  Moses.  And  con- 
sider that  the  man  lived  nine  centuries  ago. 

Another  man  of  decided  literary  attainments  is  Juda  Ben 
Koraish  who  did  solid  work  in  comparative  philology.  It 
was  natural  to  him;  he  had  a  good  knowledge  of  Hebrew, 
Arabic  was  his  mother  tongue,  Chaldee,  which  he  calls  Syrian, 
he  had  in  the  Targum  (the  bible  translation).  He  compared 
those  three  Semitic  sister-languages  and  recognized  that  they 
are  closely  related  dialects,  derived  from  a  common  root;  that 
they  are  in  essentials  determined  by  the  same  laws,  even  if 
they  diverge  again  in  their  complete  development.  The 
science  of  comparative  philology  has  only  in  most  recent  times 
again  found  intelligent  treatment.  The  nine  centuries  be- 
tween Juda  Ben  Koraish  and  the  present  are  almost  entirely 
void  in  that  field.  What  ventured  to  show  up  as  comparative 
philology  is  fantastic  and  confused  dreaming.  It  is  the  more 
gratifying  to  meet  among  the  Arabian  Jews  of  that  early  time 


JxjDA  Ben  Koraish  285 

with  a  man  who  with  clear,  sober  view  and  scientific  certainty 
correctly  recognizes  the  basic  laws  of  comparative  philology 
and  knows  how  to  present  them.  But  the  richer  land  deserves 
our  fuller  attention,  and  we  pass  over  to  Spain. 


VII. 

In  Spain. 

There  are  periods  in  the  world's  history  which  cast  their 
illuminating  rays  into  the  late  centuries.  They  are  like  a 
mighty  fountain  which,  when  the  grounds  through  which 
it  had  formerly  wandered  have  been  covered  by  drifting 
sands  or  laid  waste,  breaks  forth  somewhere  else  and  starts 
growth  there,  a  fountain  from  which  the  late  comer  yet 
eagerly  dips  refreshing  drink.  Such  is  the  biblical-Hebrew 
period,  such  the  Greek-Hellenic  time,  and  such  is,  even  if 
not  in  the  same  high  degree,  the  Jewish-Spanish-Arabian 
period.  Already  in  early  times,  Spain  had  not  been  entirely 
unknown  to  the  Jews,  but  it  was  regarded  by  them  as  a  far 
distant  country.  It  is  not  named  in  the  bible,  and  Sepharad, 
^s  the  Spanish  Jews  called  their  country  in  Hebrew,  is  not 
Spain  in  biblical  language.  But  the  Mishnah  mentions  it 
^nd  knows  the  fine  fish  from  there  which  are  served  on  the 
tables  of  gormandizing  Romans  as  dainty  dishes.  It  is 
also  spoken  of  as  the  province  of  the  sea,  the  land  of  the  West, 
and  as  the  farthest  limits  of  the  world.  The  time  when  Jews 
first  settled  there  can  not  be  fixed  with  certainty.  But 
while  all  the  ancient  nations — Phoenicians,  Greeks  and 
Romans — visited  Spain  and  founded  colonies  there,  Jews 
may  have  come  along  with  them;  and  when  the  Romans  con- 
quered the  country  and  held  it  as  a  pearl  of  their  empire, 
it  may  be  accepted  as  certain  that  Jews  went  and  settled  there. 
In  the  first  Christian  centuries  we  find  them  there  in  large 
numbers  and  as  long  as  Christianity  existed  there  in  milder 
form,  as  long  as  the  Arians  who  were  less  dogmatic,  ruled 
in  Spain,  we  find  the  Jews  in  friendly  intercourse  with  the 
rest  of  the  population.  But  when  the  more  severe  tendency 
of  the  trinitarian  faith  gained  the  supremacy  and  councils  of 
the  church  convened  frequently,  ordering  the  suppression 


In  Spain  287 

of  so-called  heresies  with  rigor  and  violence,  the  Jews  were 
treated  as  the  worst  unbelievers,  Judaism  was  adjudged  the 
most  criminal  heresy,  and  severe  measures  were  employed 
against  them.  To  the  fanaticism  of  the  church,  West-Gothic 
brutality  became  joined,  and  the  lot  of  the  Jews  was  a  very 
sad  one  as  long  as  the  West-Gothic  church  government  re- 
mained unshaken  down  to  the  eighth  century.  The  names 
Reckared,  Sisibut,  Receswinth,  Erwig,  Erika,  are  written  in 
blood  into  the  history  of  the  Jews.  The  most  severe  laws 
were  ordered  against  them,  so  that  toward  the  last,  they 
were  considered  and  treated  as  slaves  and  bondmen. 

Then  a  storm  swept  along,  convulsing  and  purifying. 
Hardly  a  century  had  passed  since  Islam  had  arisen  and  its 
adherents  had  spread  over  Northern  Africa,  reached  the 
Pillars  of  Hercules  and  now  crossed  the  narrow  strait  which 
separates  Africa  from  Europe  and  quickly  took  possession  of 
the  whole  of  Spain.  Spain  turned  over  a  new  leaf.  Arabian- 
ism,  Islam,  kept  itself  on  Spanish  soil  from  the  beginning  of 
the  eighth  century  for  over  seven  hundred  years  and  gave  to 
the  country  splendor  and  glory  and  noble  civilization.  Merry 
song,  elevation  of  mind,  flourishing  science  soon  prevailed  in 
the  country;  amidst  battle  and  clanking  of  arms  the  minds 
became  strong,  and  yet  mild  manner  did  not  disappear.  A 
peculiar  life  arose  there.  Two  nationalities  wrestle  for  ex- 
clusive possession;  to  each  nationality  attaches  different 
speech  and  faith.  Here  is  the  old-Spanish-Roman  population 
with  Roman-Castilian  language  and  Christianity;  there  is 
the  Oriental  population  with  musical  Arabic  language  and 
Islam.  A  fight  for  life  starts.  Who  speaks  Arabic  professes 
Islam;  who  speaks  Roman  is  an  adherent  of  Christianity, 
and  both  languages  flourish  with  that  mutual  emulation. 
At  the  side  of  both  populations  and  languages  there  exists 
a  third  nationality,  the  Jewish,  with  Judaism  for  faith,  and 
also  with  the  desire,  natural  under  the  circumstances,  to 
revive  the  Hebrew  language.  The  Jews  are  said  to  have 
assisted  the  Arabians  at  their  invasion  of  Spain.  If  they  did 
so,  no  fault  should  be  found  with  the  slave  who  had  been 
robbed  of  his  country  for  eagerly  seizing  the  means  offered 


288  Judaism  and  Its  History 

to  break  his  chains.  They  were  not  deceived.  Their  fetters 
were  struck  off  and  they  who  carried  many  scars  and  marks 
of  wounds  in  body  and  soul,  breathed  again  anew. 

Almost  two  centuries  passed  before  the  country  entered 
more  quiet  conditions,  before  the  rapid  conquest  changed 
to  peaceable  possession,  and  the  mental  elevation  could  attain 
its  proper  development.  At  the  beginning  of  the  tenth 
century,  a  ruler  arises  to  whom  it  is  permitted  to  spread  the 
culture  of  his  tribe  over  the  whole  of  Spain  and  to  establish  its 
power  therein.  A  reign  of  fifty  years  gives  endurance  to  his 
labors.  Abdorrahman  III.  reigns  from  911  to  961,  a  wise 
and  mighty  prince,  who  with  his  son  and  successor  Al  Hakim, 
represents  the  time  when  Arabian  dominion  in  Spain  was  in 
flower.  The  Spanish  califate  had  become  separated  from 
the  supremacy  of  Bagdad  and  was  independent.  The 
calif  of  Spain  also  took  the  title  of  Ruler  of  the  Faithful  and 
made  treaties  independently  with  other  powers.  At  the 
side  of  Abdorrahman  stood  a  Jew  who  is  named  everywhere 
as  his  faithful  adviser  and  agent  of  his  enterprises,  viz., 
his  physician,  Chasdai  Ben  Isaac  Ben  Ezra  Ben  Shaprut. 
Chasdai  belongs  to  those  eminent,  grand  natures  who  every- 
where operate  creatively,  whose  appearance  commands 
confidence  and  reverence  so  that  the  mean  and  narrow  does 
not  dare  to  come  near  them.  He  was  a  statesman  of  genius, 
of  that  genius  which  does  not  delight  in  daring  conceits, 
but  which  completely  overlooks  the  road  to  be  taken  with 
clear  view  before  beginning,  keeps  his  eye  constantly  on  the 
goal,  and  knows  how  to  move  toward  it  wisely  and  without 
ceasing.  A  man  of  that  kind  acts  stimulating  and  elevating 
even  where  he  can  not  and  will  not  move  independently. 
Whether  Chasdai  held  a  political  office  besides  his  position 
as  physician  to  the  calif,  if  he  was  minister  (secretary)  of 
Abdorrahman,  is  not  certain.  He  is  not  designated  as  visier, 
but  in  any  case  he  was  his  prince's  faithful  adviser  and  confi- 
dant who  took  the  most  difficult  tasks  in  hand  and  executed 
them.  He  directed  the  foreign  relations ;  the  negotiations  which 
Abdorrahman  entered  into  with  foreign  powers  were  made 
through  him.    Abdorrahman  considered   it  very  important 


Chasdai  Shaprut  289 

to  be  on  good  terms  with  the  realms  which  bordered  on  the 
Eastern  Arabian  Empire,  especially  with  the  Greek  Empire, 
in  order  to  be  secure  against  the  sovereignty  which  the  calif 
of  Bagdad  did  not  want  to  relinquish.  On  this  account  he 
sent  a  deputation  to  Constantinople,  which  was  returned  with 
presents.  That  was  done  through  the  agency  of  Chasdai, 
who  turned  the  legation  to  the  advantage  of  science  because 
he  obtained  the  botany  of  Dioscorides  and  procured  a  learned 
Greek  monk,  with  whose  assistance  he  m,ade  the  book  the 
property  of  the  Arabians  and  of  Europe.  Abdorrahman 
made  also  connection  with  the  German  Empire.  Between  953 
and  956,  a  deputation  went  to  Otto  I.,  who  was  then  German 
emperor,  and  it  was  answered  by  letter  in  the  hands  of  a 
German  legation,  of  which  John  Von  Goertz  was  the  leader. 
His  biographer  relates  that  the  calif  had  at  first  been  suspicious 
and  full  of  doubt  lest  the  letter  might  contain  something 
insulting  to  Islam  as  similar  expressions  about  Christianity 
had  greatly  delayed  the  reception  of  the  Arabian  deputation 
at  the  German  imperial  court.  He  therefore  entrusted  the 
first  steps  to  a  Jew  Hasdeu  (Chasdai)  and,  he  adds,  our  men 
testify  that  they  never  saw  a  wiser  man.  He  knew  how  to 
manage  that  he  learned  the  contents  of  the  letter,  and  as 
there  were  really  some  expression  in  it  which  might  wound  the 
calif's  feelings,  he  made  great  exertions  to  have  the  letter 
changed  for  another  one,  and  succeeded  in  having  it  done. 
If  such  arrangements  served  only  to  raise  the  glory  of  the 
court,  there  were  others  of  essential  advantage,  especially 
as  they  were  made  with  small,  still  existing  Christian  prin- 
cipalities in  Spain.  Don  Sancho,  the  son  of  Ramir,  was  ruler 
of  Leon,  but  he  was  considerably  objected  to  by  his  people; 
in  Navarra,  a  relative  of  his  with  his  grandmother  Tota  held 
sway.  Through  the  diplomacy  of  Chasdai,  Abdorrahman 
succeeded  so  well  that  the  two  princes  came  to  Cordova  and 
requested  the  calif  to  act  as  arbitrator.  As  Don  Sancho  was 
sick,  Chasdai  gave  him  medical  treatment,  and  then  as  dip- 
lomat, succeeded  in  getting  him  to  yield.  From  the  Slavic 
kingdoms,  too,  delegations  came  of  half-savage  tribes  and 
as  among  the  other  legations,  there  were  among  those  Slavish 


290  Judaism  and  Its  History 

ones  also  isolated  Jews  who  understood  best  how  to  effect 
the  approach.  From  them  Chasdai  heard  the  confirmation 
of  a  rumor  which  had  reached  him  before,  that  in  that  eastern 
part  of  the  world,  a  Jewish  kingdom  existed,  a  realm  of 
which  a  Jew  occupied  the  throne.  It  was  the  realm  of  the 
Chazars. 

It  had  been  founded  in  the  eighth  century  in  the  Caucasus 
and  the  present  Crimea  formed  a  part,  in  those  regions  where 
wild  mountaineers  dwelt  who  retain  their  character  till  the 
present  time.  There  a  realm  was  formed  with  Chakanes 
at  the  head;  these  professed  Judaism  since  the  eighth  century. 
The  realm  presents  a  picture  the  like  of  which  we  hardly 
find  again  in  the  Middle  Ages.  A  great  number  of  Jews 
lived  there  and  they  left  their  traces  deeply  marked  in  the 
history  of  those  lands.  At  the  present  time  the  fragments 
of  that  ancient  Chazar-Jewish  culture  are  yet  to  be  found 
in  the  Karaites  residing  there  who  in  part  are  their  descendants 
and  antiquities  have  been  and  are  discovered  which  reach 
back  into  early  times  and  permit  us  to  get  a  deeper  view  into 
the  development  of  many  a  Jewish  quality.  The  Chazar- 
Jewish  rulers  did  not  force  the  population  into  acceptance 
of  their  faith;  the  realm  was  governed  by  a  council  of  state, 
composed  of  members  of  the  various  faiths  prevailing  in  the 
land.  In  the  tenth  century  when  Chasdai  heard  of  it,  the 
empire  of  the  Chazars  had  already  passed  the  time  of  its 
flower;  the  wildly  crowding,  half-savage  populations  of  the 
frontiers  had  somewhat  shaken  the  throne,  and  shortly  there- 
after, the  Moscowites  put  their  hands  against  the  realm, 
when  the  Mongols  destroyed  it.  Chasdai  was  greatly  affected 
by  the  news;  he  could  not  rest  until  he  should  have  com- 
munication with  that  Jewish  monarch,  this  time  not  by  order 
of  his  master,  but  to  satisfy  his  own  heart.  After  much 
trouble  and  several  unsuccessful  attempts,  he  succeeded. 
As  his  messenger,  Jacob  of  Nemez  is  named,  which  in  the 
Slavonic  languages  means  Germany.  A  copy  of  the  Hebrew 
letter  which  Chasdai  addressed  to  the  King  of  the  Chazars 
has  been  preserved  and  is  in  many  regards  a  valuable  docu- 
ment from  that  time.     After  high-flown,  pompous  beginning, 


Chazars  291 

Chasdai  explains  his  position  in  the  Western  Empire,  how 
God  raised  him  up,  gives  an  account  of  Sepharad,  now 
called  Andalusia,  its  location,  character,  government,  and 
relations  with  other  countries.  Yet  he  was  always  grieved 
by  the  jeers  that  the  government  had  been  taken  from  Israel, 
and  he  had  rejoiced  the  more  upon  hearing  of  a  Jewish- 
Chazar  kingdom.  He  therefore  prays  for  more  exact  informa- 
tion, and  it  would  be  a  great  comfort  to  him  to  behold  it  with 
his  own  eyes.  The  pompous  introduction  is  an  acrostic 
showing  the  name  Chasdai  Ben  Isaac  Ben  Ezra  Ben  Shaprut. 
The  king  of  the  Chazars,  who  had  the  Hebrew  name  Joseph, 
answered  in  very  smooth  Hebrew,  gives  information  about 
his  realm,  its  extent,  borders,  and  connections;  he  derives 
the  descent  of  the  Chazars  from  Japhet,  and  tells  that  his 
ancestors  had  been  converts.  He  would  be  glad  to  see  Chasdai 
and  wishes  him  health  and  prosperity.  If  that  intercourse 
has  had  no  further  consequences,  that  exchange  of  letters  has 
preserved  to  us  a  historic  fact,  illustrating  the  position 
of  Judaism  in  the  East  at  that  time.  Out  there  where  the 
power  of  Greece  and  Rome  had  not  penetrated,  it  hung  long  in 
the  balance  which  religion  would  prevail.  Even  the  Moscow- 
ite  ruler  was  in  doubt  as  to  which  one  he  should  incline  to 
and  Christianity  owes  its  acceptance  there  almost  to  chance. 
That  exchange  of  letters  without  consequences,  the  Chazars 
washed  away  without  deeper  effects  upon  world-historic 
development  like  so  many  other  kingdoms,  was  for  a  long 
time  overlooked  and  then  doubted.  Only  recent  time  has 
proved  the  letters  genuine  and  the  actual  existence  of  the 
Chazar  realm  with  its  Jewish  kings.  Now  we  also  find  more 
and  more  remains  of  ancient  Jewish  culture  in  those  parts, 
which  give  us  revelation  of  deep  effects  of  Judaism  upon  that 
time  and  at  the  same  time  throw  remarkably  strong  light 
upon  the  entire  inner  course  of  Judaism,  revealing  ancient 
inner  developments  which  without  that,  had  been  completely 
covered  up,  and  showing  points  that  fit  into  the  whole  process 
as  necessary  parts. 

But  let  us  return  to  Chasdai.     He  also  put  himself  into 
communication  with  the  academies  at  Sora  and  Pumbeditha, 


292  Judaism  and  Its  History 

aimed  to  get  learned  Talmudical  writings  in  return,  corre- 
sponded with  Dosa,  the  son  of  Saadias,  and  sought  to  complete 
his  knowledge  of  the  conditions  in  the  country  which  was 
acknowledged  as  the  land  of  the  birth  of  Judaism.  In  that 
an  event  came  to  his  aid  which  he  seized  eagerly.  Four 
Jewish  scholars — probably  residents  of  the  Greek  Empire — 
had  undertaken  a  journey  by  sea,  the  ship  was  captured  by 
a  Spanish-Arabian  admiral,  the  crew  and  passengers  were 
made  slaves  and  sold.  Of  the  four  Jewish  scholars,  Shemarjah 
was  sold  to  Alexandria  and  redeemed  by  Jews  residing  there, 
Chushiel  went  to  Cairo,  and  Moses  with  his  son  (who  was 
probably  the  fourth  one)  whose  wife  preferred  death  in  the 
sea  to  the  embraces  of  the  lascivious  admiral,  came  to  Spain 
and  was  sold  to  Cordova.  He  was  not  recognized  at  once, 
but  his  true  character  was  soon  revealed.  Chasdai  joyfully 
seized  this  opportunity  to  appoint  him  chief  of  an  academy, 
to  dissolve  the  dependence  in  which  Judaism  had  been  on 
Eastern  Arabia,  and  to  make  Spain  independent  in  Talmudic 
scientific  relations,  just  as  his  master  had  dissolved  the 
dependence  of  Spain  from  the  Rulers  of  the  Believers  at 
Bagdad. 

Such  grand  efficacy  on  all  sides — and  he  was  in  communi- 
cation with  the  learned  polyhistor  Isaac  Ben  Solomon  in  Cairo 
— had  to  exercise  an  important  influence  upon  the  mental 
elevation  of  the  Jews  in  Spain.  All  later  authors  are  full  of 
his  praise  and  proclaim  that  through  his  patronage  Jewish 
thought  had  first  moved  glad  and  new,  all  science  had  flour- 
ished, and  song  and  poetry  had  begun  among  the  Jews.  In 
the  days  of  prince  Chasdai — says  Abraham  Ben  David  about 
1160 — began  a  merry  chirping,  and  later,  under  prince  Samuel, 
clear  song  resounded.  The  later  literary  critic,  Charisi, 
himself  at  the  beginning  of  the  thirteenth  century  a  straggler 
after  the  eminent  poets,  gives  in  a  Hebrew  poem  extravagant 
praise  to  Chasdai  for  his  influence  and  liberal  patronage  of 
Hebrew  poets  and  scholars.  In  another  short  passage,  he 
acknowledges  that  the  beginning  of  culture  had  started  then, 
but  that  those  beginnings  had  been  weak  in  comparison 
with  the  later,  higher  accomplishment:     "Formerly  there 


Menahem  Ben  Saruk  293 

was  a  number  of  poets — the  crowd  grew  wild  and  rank — 
now  their  songs  are  forgot — nobody  wants  to  hear  them 
— Menahem  Ben  Saruk,  Dunash  Ben  Librat  and  others  alike 
their  songs  have  dropped  out  of  sight — they  were  weak  and 
empty  and  Hght." 

Charisi,  an  aesthetician,  characterizes  the  periods  almost 
exclusively  by  the  poetic  attempts  made  and  executed,  but 
he  mentions  in  that  passage  names  that  are  important  in 
other  fields.  Menahem  Ben  Saruk  was  an  industrious  scholar 
and  exerted  great  influence  through  his  quiet  work.  He 
was  born  at  Tortosa,  made  his  living  as  a  merchant,  but 
lived  for  science.  Chasdai  induced  him  to  remove  to  Cordova. 
There  he  composed  the  first  Hebrew  dictionary  with  an 
introduction  containing  the  principles  of  grammar.  As  a 
first  attempt,  that  book  has  its  faults  and  weak  places.  The 
proper  insight  into  the  structure  of  the  language  had  not 
yet  been  attained ;  Menahem  did  not  yet  know  the  law  of  the 
three-letter  roots,  which  is  the  basic  law  for  all  Semitic  lan- 
guages and  especially  for  the  Hebrew,  and  upon  which  alone 
grammar  and  dictionary  can  be  scientifically  constructed. 
But  he  placed  everything  known  up  to  his  time  properly 
together,  and  broke  the  road  for  further  progress  by  the 
general  survey  of  what  had  been  done.  He  looks  with  clear 
and  sober  comprehension  upon  the  phenomena  of  the  lan- 
guage, and  his  explanations  of  the  numerous  passages 
quoted  by  him  are  sound  and  preparative  for  his  successors. 
Menahem's  dictionary  remains  even  later  a  guide  for  that  part 
of  the  Jews  in  the  Middle  Ages  who,  ignorant  of  the  Arabic, 
worked  along  the  lines  of  his  book  which  was  in  Hebrew. 
For  even  that  was  an  important  step  in  advance,  made  by 
Menahem;  he  composed  his  work  in  the  Hebrew  language 
and  founded  a  new  scientific  style  which  put  aside  the  degen- 
eracies and  mixtures  customary  till  then,  and  strove  for 
linguistically  correct  as  well  as  elegant  expression.  If  just 
in  Spain  we  meet  such  an  attempt  to  renew  the  youth  of  the 
Hebrew  language,  the  reason  for  it  is  probably  in  the  battle 
of  languages  going  on  there.  In  the  fight  between  Islam 
and   Christianity,   the  Arabic  wrestled   with   the   Castilian 


294  Judaism  and  Its  History 

tongue  for  the  prize,  and  thus  Judaism  might  be  incited  to 
to  take  part  in  the  struggle  and  attempt  to  revive  its  lan- 
guage. The  enterprise  could  not  succeed  with  a  language  that 
no  longer  prevailed  in  practical  life.  If  excellent  results 
were  yet  achieved,  it  is  a  strong  proof  of  the  noble  zeal  and 
the  high  gifts  applied  to  it,  and  the  aesthetic  culture  acquired 
by  it  effected  a  purification  of  the  taste  in  the  explanation 
of  the  Scriptures.  Menahem  made  an  important  advance 
in  that.  With  clear,  often  sublime  expression,  he  has  a 
fine  sense  for  the  characteristical  of  the  presentation,  and 
does  not  permit  his  eye  to  be  dimmed  by  the  customary 
interpretations.  As  far  as  science  can  be  his  guide,  he 
follows  it.  Of  course,  Menahem  was  no  poet.  If  he  had  to 
make  an  effort  now  and  then  to  celebrate  his  patron  Chasdai 
in  a  poem  or  to  sing  of  some  event  in  his  house,  he  did  not 
make  a  great  success  at  it.  It  probably  did  not  suit  his 
upright,  honest  mind  to  follow  the  Arabian  fashion  of  climb- 
ing the  ladder  of  praises  and  placing  extravagant  homage  at 
the  feet  of  a  patron.  He  may  have  thought  with  a  later 
maker  of  proverbs: 

Who  likes  to  make  songs  of  praise  for  the  men  on  high 
Must  know  how  to  flatter  and  understand  how  to  lie. 

With  all  his  thoroughgoing,  scientific  activity,  Menahem 
recognized  and  appreciated  the  work  of  others,  and  as  much 
as  he  excelled  the  labors  of  his  predecessors,  he  yet  abstains 
from  any  detracting  remarks  even  where  he  cannot  avoid 
contradicting  their  opinions,  and  on  the  contrary,  tries  to 
keep  any  blame  away  from  them. 

A  man  of  such  sterling  and  gentle  character  deserved  a 
quiet  life  and  reverential  recognition,  and  yet  he  did  not  receive 
what  his  modest  claims  entitled  him  to  demand.  The  times 
were  crowding  and  stormy.  A  younger  contemporary,  Dunash 
Ben  Librat,  also  known  as  Adonim  Ha-Levi,  a  native  of 
Bagdad,  had  made  his  residence  at  Fez.  Whether  he  removed 
to  Spain,  attracted  by  the  glory  of  Chasdai,  is  not  certain 
although  probable;  at  any  rate,  he  was  in  close  communication 
with  Spain.     Of  a  nature  very  different  from  that  of  Menahem, 


DuNASH  Ben  Librat  296 

Dunash  pitches  with  youthful  impetuosity  into  his  learned 
contemporaries.  At  first  he  attacks  Saadias  and  does  not 
confine  his  remarks  within  decent  limits,  eagerly  seeks  for 
small  faults,  and  points  his  criticisms  into  little  epigrams  which 
he  adds  effectively  to  each  critical  remark.  He  does  not 
belong  among  the  strongest,  yet  he  tells  the  highly  respected 
Gaon,  **  Notice  who  is  behind,  and  who  the  right  does 
find."  His  egotism  is  not  altogether  without  reason,  for 
he  has  a  better  insight  into  the  peculiarities  of  the  language 
and  has  suppositions  which  later  students  form  into  scientific 
certainties.  Aben  Ezra  says  of  him  correctly,  "  Dunash  awoke 
somewhat  out  of  the  sleep  into  which  the  earlier  ones  had 
dropped,  and  his  explanation  of  the  Scripture  strives  for 
greater  objectivity." — But  his  fight  against  Saadias  was 
merely  a  skirmish  which  he  soon  ceased.  He  appears  against 
Menahem  with  greater  severity.  He  annotates  the  diction- 
ary with  cutting  glossaries  which  now  and  then  hit  correctly, 
but  treat  the  meritorious  scholar  with  arrogant  contempt 
and  he  attempts  to  violently  strip  him  of  the  pioneer's  honor. 
Those  criticisms  he  hands  to  Chasdai,  who  accepts  them 
favorably,  so  much  the  more  as  they  are  accompanied  by  a 
poem  that  praises  Chasdai  to  the  sky. 

Dunash  belongs  to  the  first  ones  who  introduced  Arabic 
verse  metre  into  the  Hebrew  language.  Exact  metre  is 
foreign  to  the  biblical  Hebrew,  although  a  natural  rhythm 
prevails  in  its  poetical  portions  and  especially  a  rhythm  of 
thoughts.  If  they  aimed  at  that  time  to  introduce  an  exactly 
constructed  metre  in  poetry,  such  was  of  course  not  in  the 
character  of  the  Hebrew  language  but  was  an  imitation  of 
the  Arabic  which  used  various  metres  and  rhymes.  The 
kinship  of  the  Hebrew  with  thfe  Arabic  facilitated  the  carry- 
ing over  of  the  peculiarities  of  the  latter  and  they  did  not 
sound  foreign.  The  sensation  of  euphony  was  heightened 
and  the  severe  discipline  of  fixed  laws  kept  out  the  prolixity 
of  unlimited  prose.  Although  that  taking  over  of  Arabic 
poetic  forms  into  the  Hebrew  did  not  revive  it  anew,  nor 
could  acquire  a  lasting  or  scientific  property  for  it,  it  was 
yet  a  good  educational  remedy  which  did  not  miss  its  aim. 


296  Judaism  and  Its  History 

Dunash  was  one  of  the  first  to  compose  by  the  Arabic 
metres,  and  he  plumes  and  prides  himself  on  that  account. 
When  he  lays  his  poem  at  the  feet  of  Chasdai,  he  does  not 
omit  to  remark  that  it  is  constructed  in  compliance  with  the 
new  art  of  versification.     He  addresses  Chasdai: 

In  song,  cast  into  metre-mold 
(Better. than  it  was  made  of  old, 
Perhaps  it  might  seem  bold, 

I  made  the  great  improvement,) 

I  sing  the  honor  and  glory 
Of  the  gallant  man's  story 
Who  knows  well  how  to  parry 

Against  foreign  foes'  intent. 

He  towers  above  all  men, 
Skilled  both  with  sword  and  pen 
He  took  strong  cities,  ten, 

And  forced  the  foes*  consent. 

Oh,  how  he  has  close-mown 
The  weeds  so  overgrown 
When  Ramir's  son  was  thrown 
And  had  to  be  content. 

With  prayer,  and  in  bad  plight 
Without  heart  for  a  fight, 
That  king  came  in  to  write 

His  name  to  th'  agreement. 

Tota,  the  king's  grandmother, 
She,  too,  just  like  the  other. 
Surrendered  with  small  bother 
To  diplomatic  argument. 

Our  faith  he  makes  secure. 
Though  'gainst  the  evil-doer. 
He  cares  for  many  poor 

And  helps  them  to  ascent. 

To  poets  does  his  hand 
With  gifts  and  cheer  expand. 
Like  waters  o'er  the  land 

By  clouds  in  rain  are  spent. 

And  in  the  Diaspora 
He  glorifies  the  Torah; 
To  th'  academy  in  Sora 

Rich  presents  he  has  sent. 


Menahem  in  Disfavor  297 

We  do  not  want  to  find  fault  with  the  extravagant  praise 
which  his  poetic  verbiage  renders  to  the  great  statesman  and 
gracious  patron,  but  it  wounds  our  feelings  when  he  tacks  to 
that  pompous  halo  of  glory  mean  and  cutting  attacks  upon 
the  meritorious  scholar  Menahem.  For,  without  further 
ado,  he  continues: 

The  false  Scripture  explainer, 
The  word-  and  meaning- sprainer 
I  meet  as  strong  retainer, 

As  safe  and  proven  guard. 

And  when  he  thus  continues  in  many  rhyming  lines,  we 
regret  such  impassioned  invective,  which  can  find  its  excuse 
only  in  the  stormy  youthfulness  of  the  age.  What  effect 
that  homage,  joined  to  the  abuse  of  Menahem,  may  have 
had  upon  Chasdai,  we  do  not  learn.  It  can  not  be  supposed 
that  Menahem  was  by  it  crowded  out  of  his  heart.  And 
when  we  read  the  surprising  account  in  papers  which  have 
recently  been  found,  that  Menahem  had  once  suddenly  fallen 
into  disfavor  with  Chasdai,  that  the  latter  had  even  permitted 
or  himself  ordered  Menahem 's  house  demolished  on  a  Sab- 
bath day,  there  must  have  been  some  other  circumstance 
to  excite  Chasdai 's  ill-will  to  such  a  degree.  The  writings 
do  not  reveal  the  incident.  We  simply  learn  that  Menahem 
asserts  his  innocence  and  feels  convinced  that  Chasdai  will 
also  recognize  it,  if  he  will  only  quietly  hear  him  and  read 
his  words  properly.  A  first  address  which  has  not  come  down 
to  us,  seems  to  have  borne  the  introduction: 

Thou  great  pillar  of  honor, 
A  very  fountain  of  fairness, 
I  adjure  thee  by  the  law 
Of  Moses  the  Korahite. 

Oh,  take  notice  of  my  excuse, 
A  hearing  do  not  me  refuse, 
By  answer  return  good  news 
To  a  soul  that  suffered  deeply. 

It  very  often  happens  in  history,  and  specially  in  the 
history  of  literature,  that  events  of  importance  are  not  even 


298  Judaism  and  Its  History 

mentioned,  and  that  we  can  only  grasp  at  them  by  a  tip  that 
has  been  preserved  on  account  of  its  oddity.  The  letter  to 
which  those  uncouth  verses  were  the  introduction,  has  been 
lost,  but  that  introduction  has  survived  the  centuries  on 
account  of  its  oddity.  The  strange  designation  of  Moses  as 
Korahite — i.  e.,  as  attacked  by  Korah — has  caused  the  pre- 
servation of  the  lines.  If  the  letter  has  not  come  down  to 
us,  it  certainly  reached  the  hands  of  Chasdai,  for  we  learn 
the  hard  answer  he  gave  to  this  or  a  later  one:  *'If  you 
did  wrong,  the  punishment  has  made  it  right;  if  you  are  inno- 
cent, I  have  increased  your  reward  in  the  next  world."  A 
bitter  word,  with  which  a  proud  magnate  thinks  to  square 
things.  Menahem  complains  of  this  in  a  fine  letter  still  ex- 
isting, which  keeps  within  the  proper  bounds  in  spite  of  the 
full  indignation  of  the  injured  man  and  the  just  consciousness 
of  his  own  innocence,  and  does  not  fail  to  appreciate  the 
merits  of  the  man  whom  he  accuses  to  himself.  He  represents 
to  Chasdai  whether  he  may  be  judge  in  his  own  behalf  without 
examination  or  investigation,  and  execute  such  verdict; 
whether  he,  a  human  being,  could  penetrate  into  the  heart 
and  mind  of  another  and  make  himself  the  judge  of  his  inten- 
tions. It  seems  that  the  former  friendly  relations  were 
re-established  and  history  had  spread  reconciliating  silence 
upon  that  dissonance.  And  yet  curiosity  incites  us  to  lift 
the  veil.  What  was  it  that  could  goad  Chasdai  to  such  severe 
proceeding? 

Where  sure  facts  depart  from  us,  supposition  attempts 
to  take  their  place.  And  if  we  can  not  clear  Chasdai  of 
passionate  irritation,  we  may  guess  that  wounded  vanity 
blinded  the  man.  We  know  that  Chasdai  addressed  an  epistle 
to  the  king  of  the  Chazars,  which  carried  the  acrostic  of  his 
name  in  the  introduction.  Chasdai  did  not  write  the  letter 
himself.  He  was  a  man  of  general  scientific  acquirements, 
but  not  specially  learned  in  Hebrew,  though  he  had  the  title 
of  Chief  of  the  Academy.  If  he  had  been  such  a  scholar, 
he  would  hardly  have  established  the  liberated  Rabbi  Moses 
as  chief  of  an  academy  with  such  glad  haste,  and  contemp- 
oraries and  posterity  would  have  also  celebrated  his  achieve- 


Chasdai  Shaprut  299 

ments  in  that  branch  beyond  the  proper  dues,  while  there  is 
perfect  silence  on  the  subject.  He  was  a  physician  and 
statesman,  loved  science  and  promoted  it,  without  taking 
actual,  productive  share  in  it.  Surely,  as  he  generally  em- 
ployed Menahem  in  such  matters,  he  made  use  of  him  for  the 
epistle  to  the  Chazar  king,  and  the  letter  was  composed  and 
made  up  with  the  acrostic  by  that  scholar.  When  we  con- 
sider the  matter  further,  we  find  that  the  introduction  does 
not  end  with  the  acrostic,  but  the  verses  run  on  with  the 
same  rhyme.  If  we  examine  those  closely,  very  plain  frag- 
ments of  another  acrostic,  "Menahem  BenSaruk,"  appear, 
and  it  is  very  easy  to  restore  the  whole  name  by  a  few  small 
changes  which  correspond  to  the  expressions  and  the  mean- 
ing more  than  they  would  disturb  it,  and  the  presumption  is 
near,  that  Menahem  actually  indicated  his  name  in  that  way. 
Will  you  call  that  literary  vanity?  It  may  have  been,  yet 
at  any  rate  pardonable,  and  it  corresponded  to  the  fashion 
which  permitted  to  the  writers  of  even  hymns  and  liturgical 
poems  such  indication  of  their  names  as  authors.  Yet, 
Chasdai  himself,  or  the  flatterers  around  him,  may  have 
thought  differently  about  it.  Envious  and  mean,  they  may 
have  seized  the  occasion  to  cast  suspicion  on  Menahem  and 
represent  him  as  ambitious  to  share  or  even  dim  the  glory 
of  his  patron  of  whom  he  was  simply  the  servant.  And  thus 
probably  the  sensitiveness  of  Chasdai  was  aroused.  The 
fragmentary  condition  in  which  the  name  of  Menahem  appears 
in  the  letter  now,  is  very  likely  the  result  of  intentional  changes. 
At  any  rate,  the  spirits  were  reconciled  long  ago,  and 
from  Chasdai 's  memory,  too,  that  dim  shadow  has  moved 
away.  Chasdai,  Menahem,  and  Dunash,  shine  in  pure  lustre. 
They  are  the  men  of  the  beginning  and  promise ;  they  deserved 
to  have  their  lives  and  their  work  considered  more  at  length. 
The  rich  Spanish-Arabian  period  begins  with  Chasdai,  who 
worked  half  a  century  to  the  honor  of  his  country  and  for  the 
ennobling  of  Jewish  culture.  His  name  and  those  of  his  con- 
temporaries are  graven  into  history,  and  their  monuments 
are  the  more  complete  and  finished  achievements  which 
follow  upon  their  time. 


VIII. 

First  Half  of  the  Eleventh  Century. 

Whenever  intellectual  culture  is  about  to  begin  a  new 
flight,  whenever  the  endeavor  is  renewed  to  advance  from  the 
plane  of  naive  consideration  to  a  higher  point  of  view,  the 
students  lean  upon  two  ancient  cultured  nations  and  avail 
themselves  of  their  literatures;  namely,  the  Hebrew  and  the 
Greek.  Different  in  their  points  of  view,  Hebraism  and 
Hellenism  mutually  supplement  each  other.  Islam  availed 
itself  of  those  resources  and  formed  connection  with  them. 
The  Koran  had  drawn  from  Judaism  and  its  bible  the  best 
and  noblest  contents.  The  literature  of  the  Moslems  follow- 
ing thereafter  leaned  especially  upon  the  monuments  of  Greek 
literature  which  came  to  them  in  translations.  For  Islam 
was  able  to  direct  into  its  territory  only  the  brooklets  draining 
out  of  those  streams  of  life,  it  could  not  draw  directly  out  of 
the  source.  Hebrew  and  Greek  remained  entirely  unknown 
to  the  professors  of  Islam,  they  drew  only  from  translations 
which  interpreted  the  Greek  originals  to  them,  and  from  that 
which  was  communicated  to  them  from  Judaism.  In  that 
way  they  received  a  culture  that  was  brought  to  them  at 
second  hand  as  it  were;  the  actual  spirit  of  the  well,  moving 
and  living  in  those  fountains,  did  not  touch  them.  If  the 
culture  is  to  be  a  truly  refreshing  one,  it  must  go  up  to  the 
fountain  itself.  Thus  we  see  in  later  times,  when  men  at  the 
resurrection  of  science  dived  with  real  eagerness  and  youthful 
enthusiasm  into  the  rediscovered  languages  of  Greek  and 
Jewish  antiquity,  how  again  in  the  last  century,  after  the 
fountain  has  been  roiled  for  a  time,  people  crowded  more 
closely  up  to  it  and  drank  mental  health  out  of  the  limpid 
waters. 

While  every  foreign  language  remained  unknown  to  the 
professors  of  Islam,  the  Hebrew  language  and  literature  were 


First  Half  of  the  Eleventh  Century  301 

never  wholly  sealed  up  to  the  Jews,  and  whenever  a  fresh 
breath  moved  them,  endeavor  awoke  to  dive  into  the  Hebrew 
language  and  acquire  a  deeper  insight  into  it,  lively  and 
youthful,  not  simply  as  scientific  impulse,  but  as  dim  con- 
sciousness that  it  would  bring  fresh  life  and  rejuvenation. 
Philology  appears  at  such  times,  as  history  teaches  us,  as  the 
queen  of  sciences ;  humanism,  study  of  humanity,  is  then  the 
name  for  knowledge  of  antiquity;  with  this  knowledge,  the 
truly  humane  is  cultivated.  The  labors  expended  on  that 
study  pass,  therefore,  not  as  purely  academic  inquiries,  but 
are  considered  problems  of  the  entire  mental  existence. 
Immensely  high  value  is  attributed  to  linguistical  discussion 
which  we  now  consider  insignificant ;  then,  they  are  an  issue 
of  the  mental  life's  current. 

Thus  it  occurred  also  within  Judaism  during  that  period; 
the  awakening  culture  revealed  itself  in  the  great  attention 
given  to  the  Hebrew  language.  We  have  become  acquainted 
with  that  zeal  in  Menahem  and  Dunash.  If  the  fight  becomes 
hot  between  them  about  something  peculiar  and  insignificant, 
that  inflammability  of  temper  finds  its  explanation  in  the 
immense  value  which  they  necessarily  had  attributed  to  those 
subjects  that  were  to  them  more  than  mere  learning.  What 
they  had  begun,  their  successors  continued  with  the  same 
zeal  to  happier  success.  One  pupil  of  Menahem  is  the  cele- 
brated Juda  Chayug  with  the  Arabian  name  Abu  Sakaria 
Jachia,  the  most  important  grammarian,  who  first  penetrated 
into  the  inner  nature  of  the  Hebrew  language  and  first  revealed 
the  triliterality  of  the  roots,  thus  gaining  and  communicating 
clearness  in  the  whole  view  of  the  grammatical  structure  of 
the  language.  The  double  names  with  which  we  meet  among 
the  Jews  of  Spain  consist  of  an  Arabian,  besides  the  Hebrew 
name,  and  that  is  a  mark  of  the  period.  As  Jews,  they  have 
their  Hebrew  names,  but  they  lived  so  much  within  the  people 
and  the  language  of  their  country,  in  its  manners  and  customs, 
that  they  had  to  bear  an  Aral^ian  name  as  well,  for  general 
use — a  sort  of  double  nature,  repeated  in  later  times.  A  suc- 
cessor of  Chayug,  who  immediately  follows  him,  correcting 
and  completing,  and  with  whom  science  of  biblical  grammar 


302  Judaism  and  Its  History 

^nd  lexicography  of  that  period  closes,  is  Jonah,  Abulwalid 
Mervan  Ben  Ganach.  He  was  a  physician  and  philosopher 
and  created  an  epoch  as  philologist  by  elaborating  a  complete 
Hebrew  grammar  and  a  Hebrew  dictionary  in  the  Arabic 
language  and  laid  enduring  foundations  in  that  science.  He 
was  master  of  the  entire  material,  showed  deep  insight  into 
the  structure  and  the  fundamental  traits  of  the  language  and 
knew  how  to  prove  systematically  and  put  into  order  all  its 
fine  points.  All  later  writers  drew  on  him,  and  though  his 
works  were  hidden  from  those  who  were  not  masters  of  the 
Arabic  and  are  in  part  yet  unprinted  in  the  Hebrew  transla- 
tion because  later  works,  made  more  to  the  taste  of  the  time, 
seemed  to  make  them  superfluous,  the  most  generally  accepted 
books  of  instruction  have  all  drawn  from  Abulwalid  and  the 
most  recent  time  has  gladly  turned  to  him  again  to  profit  from 
his  unexhausted  wealth,  and  to  receive  instruction  out  of  the 
depth  of  his  views. 

With  him  we  have  entered  into  the  first  half  of  the  eleventh 
century,  into  the  period  that  shows  great  numbers  of  men  of 
culture  and  scholars  of  every  kind.  In  all  branches  of  science, 
men  appear  who  reveal  the  profound  and  many-sided  mental 
movement;  astronomers  like  Hassan  Ben  Hassan,  also  known 
as  Jekuthiel,  numerous  Talmudists,  although  that  science  was 
then  in  Spain  at  an  early  stage  and  rose  only  later  into  greater 
perfection,  workers  in  the  most  various  philosophical  branches, 
as  also  men  who  entered  more  deeply  into  the  essence  of 
human  life  and  endeavored  to  know  man  himself  according 
to  his  moral  requirements.  As  such  a  one,  I  want  to  particu- 
larly mention  Bachia  (Bechai)  Ben  Joseph  Bakuda,  a  man  of 
an  amiable  sincerity,  who  introduces  us  into  the  depths  of 
the  human  heart,  who  deeply  feels  and  examines  its  true 
religious  and  moral  requirements,  so  that,  putting  aside  the 
outer  rubble,  he  dives  into  the  stream  of  mental  and  senti- 
mental life,  permits  it  to  rush  through  himself  and  presents 
the  refreshing  waters  to  others.  There  is  a  certain  trait  of 
pietism  in  him,  not  altogether  free  of  tenderheartedness,  but 
otherwise  of  such  cordiality  that  he  knows  how  to  break 
through  the  fetters  of  the  prescribed  credence  and  manner 


Bachia  303 

of  action  and  puts  mere  naked  doing  behind  fresh,  living  con- 
viction. The  name  of  his  work  is  sufficient  to  show  by  what 
tendency  the  man  is  ruled:  "Duties  of  the  Heart."  He 
wants  to  present  what  the  heart  feels  as  obligatory  and  what 
it  requires  for  its  ennobling.  He  lets  man  descend  into  him- 
self that  he  may  become  conscious  of  his  advantages  and 
abilities  and  strive  to  cultivate  and  develop  them,  but  also 
to  recognize  his  shortcomings  and  finiteness  and  humbly  labor 
towards  perfection.  ** Duties  of  the  heart,'*  he  says,  "surely 
precede  duties  of  the  limbs  as  the  compliance  with  a  mere 
commandment.  Works,  that  are  outside  of  me,  which  I  can 
thoughtlessly  practice  with  hands  or  feet,  are  not  the  highest 
goal  of  man;  such  is  rather  the  awakening  within  himself  of 
the  consciousness  of  the  duties  of  the  heart  to  gain  strength 
by  them."  And  this  man  was  Dayan  (judge),  by  office  and 
calling,  a  religious  leader  of  the  community,  and  thereby  his 
time  is  yet  more  distinctly  characterized  by  the  circumstance 
that  men  of  his  position  place  disposition  and  conviction 
higher  than  ritual  performance  and  learning.  It  surprises 
him,  he  said,  to  see  how  many  raise  the  most  remote  questions 
and  make  searching  investigations  about  particulars  relating 
to  ceremonies  which  occur  but  rarely.  Upon  such  a  question 
once  addressed  to  him,  he  replied:  "My  dear,  you  must 
surely  have  advanced  very  far  in  the  culture  of  your  heart. 
Have  you  actually  achieved  so  much  along  that  line  that  you 
have  leisure  to  investigate  such  rare  matters?"  A  beautiful 
period  that  holds  such  a  man. 

Song  and  poetry  in  the  Hebrew  language  were  cultivated 
with  particular  enthusiasm.  As  scientific  knowledge  of  the 
language  stood  high  then,  they  wanted  to  have  full  possession 
of  it,  sing  in  it  and  make  poems  in  it.  Such  an  undertaking 
could  not  succeed ;  a  language  that  has  departed  out  of  every- 
day life  is  not  fitted  for  song  welling  forth  from  the  heart. 
And  yet  the  attempt  was  natural,  and  we  see  it  come  out  at 
all  periods  of  awakening  culture.  With  the  revival  of  the 
sciences  and  the  resurrection  of  classic  antiquity,  men  dived 
into  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages  and  attempted  to  make 
poems  in  them  as  if  they  were  the  speech  of  head  and  heart* 


304  Judaism  and  Its  History 

To  the  Jews,  the  Hebrew  was  much  nearer;  for  it  was  the 
language  of  their  religious  life,  of  their  divine  service,  and 
seemed  thus  to  be  well  fitted  for  the  expression  of  deepest 
sentiment.  Therefore,  while  scientific  works  were  written  in 
Arabic,  poetry  was  composed  in  Hebrew.  Two  men  in  par- 
ticular attract  our  attention ;  one  more  by  the  wide  compass 
of  his  knowledge,  the  wealth  of  his  effectiveness,  and  at  the 
same  time,  the  many-sided  attempts  in  various  branches  of 
literary  activity  to  which  his  poetical  works  also  belong.  I 
mean  Samuel  Ha-Levi,  surnamed  Ha-Nagid,  or  the  prince, 
with  the  Arabian  name  Ibn  Nagdilah. 

Samuel  is  an  elevating  character.  Of  plain  station,  he 
rises  to  the  visierate  at  the  court  of  the  calif  of  Granada. 
He  was  born  at  Cordova,  but  persecutions  occurring  there 
drove  him  out  of  that  city.  For  even  in  that  time,  shining 
to  us  in  the  poetic  shimmer  of  distance,  violent  eruptions 
were  not  infrequent.  Rebellion  against  one  dynasty  broke 
forth,  and  it  was  crowded  out  by  another;  incursions  of  the 
Berbers  from  North  Africa  threatened  to  suffocate  the  flowers 
of  culture  and,  at  any  rate,  frequently  shook  the  secure  posi- 
tion of  the  thrones.  Thus,  that  period  must  not  appear  to 
us  too  ideal;  it  did  not  enjoy  undisturbed  evolution;  civil 
welfare  and  mental  progress  were  often  interrupted  by  rough 
blows.  Only  they  were  passing  convulsions,  not  the  con- 
stant pressure,  almost  enacted  into  law,  as  it  was  the  rule  in 
the  Christian  Middle  Ages.  By  such  a  convulsion,  Samuel 
was  driven  out  of  Cordova.  In  Malaga,  where  he  went  and 
where  the  calif  of  Granada  had  established  his  seat  for  awhile, 
he  became  known  to  his  visier  and  used  by  him.  And  before 
his  death,  that  officer  recommended  Samuel  to  the  calif  as 
his  successor,  perhaps  because  he  had  recognized  him  as  a 
well-cultured,  adroit  and  reliable  man,  who  was  master  of  the 
Arabic  language  up  to  its  most  artistic,  pompous  forms. 
Samuel  obtained  the  visierate  and  remained  in  that  place  in 
the  empire  for  a  long  succession  of  years;  his  sincerity  and 
good  sense,  his  ability  joined  with  modesty,  caused  him  to 
surmount  all  difficulties  arising  on  numerous  occasions. 
While  he  thus  showed  himself  thoroughly  equal  to  his  position 


Gabirol  305 

as  statesman,  he  shines  to  posterity  also  as  one  of  the  most 
important  scholars  in  many  fields.  He  was  head  of  the  acad- 
emy, an  important  Talmudist,  author  of  scholarly  works, 
entertained  a  lively  correspondence  with  scholars  in  various 
countries  and  left  a  large  number  of  Hebrew  poems  which, 
if  they  do  not  exhibit  special  genius,  yet  are  not  without  skill 
and  fine  expression  in  their  language.  He  died  highly 
honored  in  1055,  and  left  the  visierate  to  his  son,  who  is  also 
greatly  praised,  but  who,  grown  up  in  position  and  affluence, 
did  not  possess  the  modesty  of  his  father,  and  lost  his  life 
during  a  riot. 

A  man  of  different  kind,  and  towering  high  above  his 
time,  is  Solomon  Gabirol,  also  named  Aba  Ajub  Suleiman  Ben 
Gebrol.  Sublime  is  the  poetic  tale  of  antiquity,  how  the  men 
of  the  days  of  yore  shake  at  the  bars  of  their  finite  power  and 
endeavor  to  acquire  their  full  independence.  The  Titans 
pile  mountain  upon  mountain  to  storm  the  heavens;  the  men 
of  one  language  and  one  speech  want  to  build  in  Babylon's 
wide  plain,  a  city  with  a  tower  the  point  of  which  shall  reach 
into  heaven,  in  order  that,  relying  upon  their  own  power,  they 
may  have  a  guarantee  of  endurance  and  preservation.  Such 
bold  aspiration  of  man  fails  on  account  of  his  weakness,  and 
results  in  punishment  and  fall.  Yet  more  sublime  is  the 
poetic  conception  that  presents  man  in  his  mental  strife,  how 
he  wants  to  break  through  the  narrow  confines  that  surround 
his  mind,  by  penetrating  the  darkness  of  the  moral  order  of 
the  world.  Job  carries  the  consciousness  of  his  virtue  and 
purity  with  a  certain  intrepidity  into  the  fight  against  the 
mishaps  of  life;  he  calls  eternal  justice  to  account:  *'Why 
all  this  to  me?  Do  I  not  rate  higher  than  my  fate?  And  yet 
such  things  happen  to  me?"  In  that  strife  of  moral  indigna- 
tion with  the  afflictions  of  life  lies*  an  elevation  and  dignity 
that  we  feel  ourselves  lifted  up  with  the  wrangler  in  spite  of 
his  afflictions.  Composed,  we  enter  with  him  again  into  the 
subjection  to  the  higher  spirit  of  God,  who  reveals  Himself 
to  him  in  His  infinite  sublimity.  Still  more  profound  and 
ingenious  is  it,  when  the  poet  of  modern  times  presents  Faust 
to  us,  as  he  tries  to  penetrate  into  the  depths  of  knowledge, 


306  Judaism  and  Its  History 

see  the  veil  lifted  from  the  secret  of  creation,  descend  into  the 
web  and  woof  of  the  source  of  force  and  spirit,  work  with 
them,  and  thus  solve  the  riddle  of  all  existence,  impatiently 
wants  to  become  master  of  his  mental  finiteness  and  limitation. 
Deep  is  his  fall  when  he  sinks  from  that  presumptuous  height 
into  sensuality  to  suffocate  his  high  endeavor  in  it.  Only 
through  the  naivety  of  an  innocent,  pure  being  that  becomes 
chained  to  him,  he  is  saved.  Such  a  Faust-nature,  but  with- 
out any  mixture  of  sensuality,  without  desire  of  exhausting 
the  enjoyment  of  life  at  one  time  and  of  draining  the  cup  to 
the  lees,  such  a  nature  is  Solomon  Gabirol.  A  man  whose  life 
is  an  uninterrupted  wrestling  to  descend  into  the  deepest 
secrets  of  existence,  to  apprehend  the  driving  wheel  of  mind 
and  life  and  of  the  forces  which  bind  the  universe  together. 
Such  men  are  driven  by  a  constant  unrest;  they  are  never 
satisfied  within  themselves,  because  they  never  reach  the  goal 
for. which  they  strive  without  ceasing.  The  ideal  appears  to 
them  from  afar  in  its  full  grace  and  beauty,  they  rush  after 
it,  they  think  of  seizing  it,  and  it  disappears.  Yet  they  never 
weaken,  they  begin  the  race  anew,  they  rise  with  the  bold 
flight  of  enthusiasm  to  come  near  to  the  last  reason  of  things, 
they  weaken  in  their  flight  but  still  rise  again.  Deep  gloom 
surrounds  such  men,  a  world-pain,  or  rather  a  knowledge- 
pain,  goes  through  their  soul,  and  yet  it  is  like  the  cloud  that 
veils  the  divine  glory  and  reflects  it  at  the  same  time.  When 
they  enter  into  the  reality,  it  appears  naked  and  bald  to  them, 
they  do  not  find  their  ideals  materialized.  The  idea,  as  it 
enters  the  material,  visible  world,  appears  to  them  broken, 
dishonored,  profaned,  and  they  run  over  with  complaints 
about  the  insusceptibility  of  their  contemporaries  for  the 
grand  and  sublime,  complaints  which  appear  to  us  often  very 
bitter  and  unjust.  They  throw  their  whole  contempt  upon 
their  own  time  especially;  the  former  times,  they  think,  may 
have  been  better.  The  difference  between  the  ideal  and  the 
actual  is  with  them  too  great,  so  that  a  just  verdict  can 
hardly  be  expected  from  them.  They  would  like  to  join  in 
close  communion  with  individuals,  their  heart  longs  for  a 
mind  of  like  tone ;  sometimes  they  think  of  having  found  one 


Gabirol  307 

to  whom  they  may  pour  out  their  impulse,  but  alas!  it  was 
an  illusion.  Some  come  to  them  with  the  self-complacency 
of  a  Wagner,  admire  and  praise  their  great  knowledge  without 
surmising  the  depth  of  their  soul.  From  the  other  ones  with 
the  practical  understanding  who  in  addition  think  themselves 
far  superior  to  such  noble  souls,  they  turn  away  with  the 
same  indignation  as  from  the  serfs  of  sensuality.  And  thus 
they  remain  lonesome  and  alone. 

Such  a  man  is  Solomon  Gabirol,  a  poet  whose  poems  are 
consecrated,  full  of  thought,  a  thinker  whose  thoughts  are 
poetically  transfigured.  When  Charisi,  the  later  poet  and 
aesthetic  critic,  gives  his  verdict  upon  the  various  earlier 
poets,  it  seems  as  if  the  flight  of  Gabirol's  muse  had  lent  him 
wings,  as  he  characterizes  him  with  a  few  words: 

A  king  he  stands,  sublime  and  grand,  alone; 
The  song  of  songs  is  made  by  Solomon. 

Sublime,  high,  is  with  him  both  thought  and  word. — ^Who 
goes  up  into  heaven  and  brings  them  from  there? — His  songs 
for  fast -days  are  beautiful — wonderfully  powerful — his 
prayers  for  repentance  hours  give  odor  like  beds  of  flowers 
— incomparable  is  his  figure's  force — unattainable  the  word 
as  it  powerfully  roars. 

Legend  loves  to  glorify  the  childhood  of  great  men.  It 
is  spared  the  trouble  in  Gabirol's  case,  for  he  stands  out 
finished,  scarcely  beyond  the  years  of  childhood.  At  the  age 
of  sixteen,  he  says  of  himself: 

A  boy  of  sixteen  years  f 

In  experience  of  gray  hairs. 

In  experience,  not  in  the  sense  of  having  lived  many  years . 
and  gained  knowledge  of  the  world,  but  experienced  in  the 
painful  sense  that  the  dissonance  between  the  ideal  and  the 
actual  had  then  already  sounded  within  him,  and  that  he  felt 
it  as  if  a  rent  had  set  his  heart  a-trembling.  He  punishes  him- 
self for  breaking  out  into  such  painful  complaints  at  so  early 
an  age  and  for  not  overcoming  them,  because  he  can  not  quit 
his  high  aim: 


308  Judaism  and  Its  History 

Does  plaint  fit  one  of  sixteen  years 
Bemoaning  disappointment  in  his  life? 
With  cheeks  like  the  morning's  ray 
With  the  youngsters  I  ought  to  play. 
But  no;  my  heart  so  old  in  manner 
Enrolled  me  under  wisdom's  banner, 
And  thus  my  youth  has  disappeared, 
And  the  road  for  pain  was  cleared. 
Sighing  and  groaning  close  to  me  keep. 
If  I  see  pleasure,  I  have  to  weep. 
What  profits  the  tear?    Vain  conceit! 
What  promises  hope?    Pale  deceit! 
They  say  some  balsam  will  make  me  sound; 
Me?  who  is  down  with  mortal  wound. 

It  may  have  once  been  better,  but  what  use  is  that  to 

him?  ^^ 

What  use  my  plaint,  my  pine, 
That  the  world  is  not  perfected? 
No  doubt  it  once  was  very  fine — 
My  coming's  time's  too  late  selected. 

He  lived  at  first  at  Saragossa,  whose  inhabitants  certainly 
were  not  the  worst  among  the  Jews  of  Spain;  Bachia  too, 
whom  we  have  mentioned  before,  seems  to  have  been  a  resi- 
dent of  that  city.  Of  course  they  did  not  come  up  to  Gabirol's 
ideal. 

With  this  bad  generation  I  am  in  sore  plight, 

What  I  call  left,  they  call  that  right; 

Lonesome  like  a  grave  it  is  all  around, 

My  house  feels  like  a  coffin,  I  am  so  bound. 

Yet  I  must  sit  in  their  council's  assembly 

And  must  hear  their  senseless  babble. 

For  around  me  are  fools  and  hinds 

Who  think  themselves  giant  minds. 

They  would  give  me  wormwood  to  sip 

With  smiling  mien  and  flattering  lip 

And  bitter  hatred  in  their  heart. 

When  I  hear  them  speak,  it  makes  me  start. 

It  seems  as  if  they're  whispering  Latin  apart. 

What  profit  to  me  if  poet  I  am, 

To  sing  for  that  kind  of  rabble? 

'Tis  better  I  loose  every  latchet, 

And  chop  them  up  with  my  tongue  for  hatchet. 


Gabirol  309 

He  entertained  at  times  very  friendly  relations  with 
Samuel  Ha-Levi.  The  noble  prince  probably  liked  to  see  the 
excellent  man  in  his  neighborhood,  recognized  his  worth  and 
valued  him  accordingly,  but  he  was  a  poet  himself  and  per- 
haps felt  a  rival's  jealousy.  Gabirol  sang  the  fame  of  Samuel 
now  and  then,  but  we  catch  discords  too,  which  sound  through 
their  relations.  A  short  verse  of  Gabirol's,  preserved  by 
chance,  reveals  the  tension.     It  says: 

^I  feel  so  cold,  I  am  chilled  most  stiff  and  tight 
As  if  I  heard  a  song  by  Samuel  the  Levite. 

Such  sharp  scorn  sounds  through  other  poems.  Epicurean 
worldlings  approach  him  to  be  wise,  to  live  like  others,  to 
apply  the  world's  pleasures  against  melancholy,  and  to  drown 
his  pain  in  wine.  But  he  opposes  that  with  that  deep,  nobler 
pain  which  mocks  at  such  remedies: 

With  tears  thy  grief  thou  dost  bemoan 
Tears  that  would  melt  the  hardest  stone. 
Oh,  wherefor  sing'st  thou  not  the  vine? 
Why  chant'st  thou  not  the  praise  of  wine? 

But  I :     Poor  fools  the  wine  may  cheat, 
Lull  them  with  lying  visions  sweet; 
Upon  the  wings  of  storms  may  bear 
The  heavy  burden  of  their  care; 
The  father's  heart  may  harden  so 
He  feeleth  not  his  own  child's  woe. 

No  ocean  is  the  cup,  no  sea, 
To  drown  my  broad,  deep  misery. 
It  grows  so  rank;  you  cut  it  all, 
The  aftermath  springs  just  as  tall. 
My  heart  and  flesh  are  worn  away, 
I  Mine  eyes  are  darkened  from  the  day. 

The  lovely  morning  red  behold 
Wave  to  the  breeze  her  flag  of  gold 
The  hosts  of  stars  above  the  world 
Like  banners  vanishing  are  furled. 
The  dew  shines  bright;  I  bide  forlorn. 
And  shudder  with  the  chill  of  morn. 

There  is  but  one  thing  by  which  he  can  overcome  his  pain, 


310  Judaism  and  Its  History 

that  same  which  produces  the  pain — investigation,  striving 
for  the  goal  of  his  desire : 

Endowed  with  the  strength,  never  shall  I  cease 

Until  I  finish  what  I  swore  to  do. 

If  Time  does  melt  me  up,  as  fire  melts  gold, 

Yet  shall  I  faithful  be  to  wisdom,  ever  true. 

If  Time  for  me  would  not  put  saddle  on  his  racer 

Yet  did  I  dare  the  ride,  as  long  as  life  does  last, 

I'll  not  surrender,  and  shall  yet  succeed; 

My  heart  is  strong,  courageous,  too,  indeed. 

I've  often  wrestled  hard  with  fate: 

I  have  not  conquered  it,  it  has  not  mastered  me. 

The  same  decision  breathes  through  another  song: 

My  soul,  thou'rt  whirring,  the  thoughts 

Are  tottering  restless  about. 

As  clouds  of  smoke  are  curling  aloft 

When  flames  are  starting  up. 

Perhaps  thou  art  a  wheel,  circling  the  earth, 

A  sea  in  which  the  cares  are  heaving, 

A  maelstrom  in  the  swirl  of  which 

The  earth's  foundations  are  a-sinking? 

The  world  thou  didst  not  court,  and  it  knows 

How  to  richly  requite  thee  with  trouble. 

Quit  wisdom's  path,  and  that  same  world 

Will  hand  to  thee  its  festive  garments. 

This  is  what  makes  me  full  of  sorrow, 

Who'll  cure  me  of  this  pain  so  sharp? 

I'm  looking  for  a  man  of  mind  and  spirit — 

In  vain!     My  chase  has  no  result. 

And  if  the  world  has  but  illusion, 

I'll  spit  at  its  deceptive  image, 

I  want  it  not  if  to  my  light  its 

Eye  is  dimmed  and  veiled  and  blind; 

And  yet,  how  I  should  love  it, 

If  kind  and  friendly  face  it  would  show  me. 

Enough  of  wickedness  has  been  accomplished. 

Face  right  about,  O  world,  and  turn  thy  wheel; 

Full  long  enougn  the  wise  and  honest 

Thou  hast  selected  to  do  slaves*  work. 

*Tis  long  enough  that  noble  cedars 

Have  been  esteemed  like  useless  brush ; 

Oh  take  away  the  wicked  wights 

Who,  because  hollow,  are  puffed  up  so  much. 


Gabirol  311 

If  by  justice,  thy  award  is  made, 
They  should  not  harvest  all  the  joys, 
Nor  choose  the  daughters  of  the  sun 
To  propagate  their  folly. 

Is  it  your  quarrel,  O  thorny  labyrinths, 

That  I  descend  into  the  depths 

Of  wisdom,  dig  her  treasures? 

Because  you  can  not  see,  you  ask 

That  I  be  blind  to  all  her  lustre, 

And  dissolve  my  covenant  with  her 

Ordained  by  God's  own  power. 

How  could  I  leave  thee,  lovely  mother, 

Who  kindly  bendest  to  thy  child? 

How  could  I  cast  away  the  soul's  treasures, 

Tear  from  my  head  thy  glorious  diadem? 

While  her  Eden's  streams  are  running 

Mighty,  yet  so  clear  and  mild, 

O  sweetest  pleasure,  heart's  refreshment 

Which  all  along  their  shores  I  find ! 

Therefore,  my  soul,  get  up  and  rise. 

At  her  sun,  get  your  fire, 

And  swear  it  loud  and  firm: 

I'll  search  until  I  find  the  Source. 

Thus  does  Gabirol's  spirit  wrestle  boldly  titanic  in  many- 
grand  poems  in  which  his  true  sentiment  is  expressed  more 
deeply  than  in  the  many  religious  ones  which  do  not  deny 
his  wrestling  but  still  follow  the  customary  views  more  closely. 
And  a  peculiar  force  is  in  those,  too.  A  few  out  of  the  great 
plenty  which  are  yet  in  use  in  many  of  our  houses  of  worship 
may  serve  as  proof. 

At  dawn  and  in  the  evening 
I  seek  Thee,  rock  and  lord. 
To  give  my  heart  an  opening 
And  speak  a  praying  word. 
Afraid  I  stand,  and  anxious; 
I  know  Thine  eye  has  caught 
The  most  secret  of  my  thought 
Before  the  word  can  sound. 
Withal,  what  is  the  force  of  thought 
What  does  the  word  avail, 
Howe'er  it  boldly  soar  aloft 
Or  try  a  pleading,  soft? 


312  Judaism  and  Its  History 

Yet  Thou  art  pleased  with  praise 
And  thanks  in  songs  of  men  to  Thee, 
And  so  I'll  sound  it  merrily 
As  long  Thy  breath's  in  me. 

Another: 

Before  mine  eyes,  three  things  stand  firmly  founded 

Of  which  each  one  Thy  name  has  sounded : 

I  see  Thee  when  the  high  heavens  I  regard 

Which  'round  the  earth,  proclaiming  Thee,  is  wound. 

The  earth  itself,  my  dwelling  place,  incites  the  mind, 

That  in  its  structure,  the  master  it  may  find. 

And  my  soul  praises  my  God  in  glee, 

When  by  introspection  it  finds  itself  of  Thee. 

Entering  still  deeper  into  Jewish  life,  and  joining  more 
closely  to  customary  manner,  his  muse  sounds  in  accords  no 
less  gracious  and  strong: 

Judge  of  the  world,  take  a  pleasure 
In  our  morning  prayers'  measure, 
As  of  old,  in  the  Temple's  time, 
When  the  priest  yet  did  the  pleading, 
When  he  did  the  interceding 
With  the  sacrificial  odors  rising. 

Mercy  and  pity  and  grace  is  Thy  name, 
Merit  of  our  own  we  can  not  claim. 
Kindly  remember  our  forefathers'  deeds, 
Accept  it  if  their  memory  for  us  pleads 
For  their  sake  accept  our  supplication 
As  at  the  sacrificial  odors  rising. 

Thou  always  lettest  mercy  prevail. 
When  we  tremble  in  balancing  scale. 
Impress  with  Thy  grace's  bliss 
The  loving,  fatherly  kiss 
On  the  forehead  of  all  Thy  children 
As  at  the  sacrificial  odors  rising. 

Remember  Zion,  once  so  praised! 
Let  the  mild  light  now  be  raised 
O'er  the  minds  of  all  mankind. 
That  Thy  laws*  truth  they  may  find 
As  once  from  the  Temple's  court 
With  the  sacrificial  odors  rising. 


Gabirol  313 

God  alone  can  be  your  stay; 
If  you  walk  along  His  way 
He  turns  the  threatened  wrath 
Mildly  into  pardon's  path, 
Lets  repentance  be  advising 
As  at  the  sacrificial  odors  rising. 

No  wonder  when  his  word  sounds  also  cutting  and  gloomy 
against  the  oppressors,  against  Christians  (Edom)  and 
Moslems  (Ishmael): 

The  foe's  triumphant.     I  am  down,  exhausted. 
To  wild  and  rough,  untamed  hordes  a  prey; 
Plaint  of  my  pain  in  words  I  dare  not  say; 
A  trembling  lamb,  a  beggar  by  the  way. 
O  God,  when  will  relief  come  to  Thy  throng! 
When  will  this  end?    O  Lord,  how  long! 

Babel  oppressed  me  down  to  its  very  fall. 
Then  Persians,  Greeks,  and  Edom's  nations  all, 
Till,  fugitive,  I  roam  from  land  to  land, 
Ishmael,  too,  strikes  me  with  heavy  hand. 
Four  hundred  sixty  and  one  years*  so  strong — 
When  will  this  end?    O  Lord,  how  long! 

The  first  redemption  to  Abram  was  revealed. 

The  second  was  to  Jeremiah's  word  fulfilled, 

The  third  was  told  in  enigmatic  writ 

To  Daniel,  but  its  solution  deeply  hid, 

No  clue  to  questioner's  mind,  however  strong — 

When  will  this  end?     O  Lord,  how  long? 

After  such  serious  poems,  let  us  listen  to  a  merry  song. 
He  had  been  invited  to  a  banquet  by  a  certain  Moses;  the 
wine  provided  was  but  a  small  quantity  and  soon  drunk  up. 
The  guests  had  to  be  satisfied  with  water.  With  mock 
mourning  and  comical  indignation,  Gabirol  complains  of  the 
misfortune  and  laughs  at  the  miser  who  causes  the  wine 
(Hebrew  yayin,  the  letters  used  as  numbers  equal  to  70)  to  be 
crowded  out  by  water  (mayim,  equal  to  90) : 

Gone  is  the  wine! 
Oh  torture  of  mine! 
My  eye  overflows 
With  water. 

*  The  year  461  of  the  Hegira:  1169  A.  C. 


314  Judaism  and  Its  History 

The  Seventy  is  full  of  the  fire  of  youth 
Banished  is  he  by  the  Ninety-Monster  uncouth. 

Now  quit  your  singing, 

The  glasses  stop  ringing, 
Full  of  water,  and  water,  and  water. 

From  the  bread  has  parted  its  flavor, 
From  the  meat,  too,  has  fled  all  savor; 

I  am  not  even  myself 

When  cups  come  from  shelf 
Full  of  water,  and  water,  and  water. 

By  Moses  were  dried  up  the  sea  and  its  showers, 
The  Nile's  flood  changed.     But  this  Moses  of  ours 

O  Heavens!  makes  drip, 

O  Heavens!  makes  sip 
But  water,  and  water,  and  water. 

To  a  frog  to  turn  me  he'd  like. 
To  croak  like  a  frog  by  the  dyke, 

He  never  tires  quite 

To  shriek  and  invite 
Quaff  water,  and  water,  and  water. 

Turn  hermit,  if  you  live  ever  so  long! 

May  drink  ne'er  refresh  you,  enjoy  never  song, 

And  the  children  when  near, 

May  cry  in  your  ear: 
Bring  water,  and  water,  and  water. 

As  Gabirol  reveals  as  poet  his  desire  to  apprehend  the  first 
cause,  so  he  attempts  as  philosopher  such  a  mental  flight  with 
the  full  fervor  of  his  soul  and  the  energy  of  his  will.  The 
work  which  contains  the  results  of  his  thoughts  was  composed 
in  the  Arabic  language  and  is  no  longer  extant  in  the  original 
and  exists  only  in  translations.  Its  name  is  *'The  Source  of 
Life."  The  Neoplatonists  are  undoubtedly  his  instructors. 
Like  them,  he  uses  the  method,  not  to  get  up  to  the  infinite 
and  unfathomable  by  gradual  rising  from  the  comminuted 
actuality,  but  to  sink  into  the  all-sun  with  intuitive  view,  in 
order  to  recognize  how  all  is  illuminated  by  its  rays,  to  seize 
the  absolute  in  genial  flight  and  to  comprehend  how  it  pene- 
trates with  creative  necessity  into  constantly  lowering  circles. 
His  doctrine  is  a  doctrine  of  emanation,  divine  omnipotence 


Gabirol  315 

pours  out  in  its  plenty  and  inexhaustibility,  and  thus  gradually 
arise  weaker  mental  formations  which  close  together  into 
constantly  narrowing  forms  until  it  arrives  at  our  sober  world 
in  which  we  must  breathe,  but  from  which  we  can  lift  ourselves 
up  to  the  first  cause,  the  all-spirit,  the  impregnating  stream 
of  all  existence.  Yet  the  divine  creative  energy  is  not  blind 
necessity;  it  is  the  mighty  Will  which  freely  emanates  from 
Divinity  to  form  and  sustain  its  creations  through  the  times. 
We  can  not  follow  that  system  further  here.  But  it  is 
recognized  that  Gabirol  in  the  boldness  of  his  thought  reminds 
us  of  Spinoza  to  whom  he  has  been  frequently  compared  in 
recent  times,  even  if  he  does  not  approach  him  in  plastic  quiet 
and  consistency,  while  he  towers  above  him  in  fervor  and 
poetic  talent.  His  theory  of  the  will  reminds  us  of  Schopen- 
hauer, who  stands  far  below  him  in  moral  enthusiasm  and 
depth  of  investigation.  Like  both,  he  went  lonesome  and 
alone  through  the  world,  recognized  during  his  life  and  in  later 
times  as  a  great  man  but  yet  not  fully  estimated  according  to 
his  high  importance.  After  eight  centuries,  let  us  put  the 
wreath  of  honor  on  the  head  of  Gabirol.  Like  one  de- 
scended from  unapproachable  heights,  unrecognized,  he  ran 
his  race  in  life's  arena.  Rubbish  and  gravel  soon  piled  up 
around  his  writings.  His  philosophical  work,  translated  into 
Latin,  was  much  used  by  the  scholiasts  of  the  Middle  Ages, 
called  by  a  name  that  hardly  makes  Gabirol  known;  viz., 
Avizebron  or  Avencebrol,  which  is  nothing  else  than  Aben 
Gebrol.  A  later  Hebrew  translation,  rather  abbreviated, 
remained  altogether  unknown.  After  the  middle  of  the 
thirteenth  century,  history  is  almost  silent  about  the  laborious 
work  of  his  thoughts.  Of  his  best  poems,  many  have  been 
lost,  many  were  long  covered  up,  only  a  few  of  his  religious 
pieces  have  preserved  the  name  Gabirol  to  recent  times. 
And  only  now  he  has  in  a  certain  way  been  again  discovered 
and  properly  estimated.  We  are  far  removed  from  him.  A 
long  interval  of  time,  development  broadly  swollen  in  the 
meantime,  separates  us  from  him,  in  strange  garb  and  in 
distant  views  he  appears  before  us.  Yet  the  high  and  deeply 
furrowed  forehead  of  the  thinker  bids  us  reverence,  the  fervid 


316  Judaism  and  Its  History 

eye  of  the  talented  poet  flashes  toward  us,  and  thus  we  repeat 
after  Charisi: 

A  king  he  stands,  sublime  and  grand,  alone! 


IX. 

The  Orient,  Spain  from  1070  to  1140. 

The  first  half  of  the  eleventh  century  in  Spain  reminds  the 
observer  of  the  time  of  maturing  youth.  To  the  able  and 
aspiring  youth  a  new  mental  world  is  opening;  his  enraptured 
eye  rests  upon  it,  he  dives  with  pleasure  into  it,  endeavors  to 
enrich  and  deepen  his  knowledge  in  all  directions.  In  that 
occupation  he  is  so  happy,  and  he  is  so  taken  up  with  it  that 
he  hardly  takes  notice  of  the  world  around  him;  he  does  not 
bother  about  the  contradictions  which  stand  in  the  actuality 
against  his  ideals;  and  pursuing  these,  he  lets  the  other  be 
and  merrily  enjoys  what  is  offered  to  him.  The  man  who  has 
arrived  at  his  conclusions  and  lives  no  longer  within  himself, 
takes  offense  at  the  actuality  much  more  easily;  the  fight 
between  that  which  he  has  formed  within  himself  and  strives 
for,  and  that  which  exists  and  which  he  can  execute  and  com- 
plete, comes  to  him  nearer  and  more  oppressive.  The  time 
of  that  age  was  a  period  of  youth  and  men  dive  into  the  great 
mental  treasury  which  they  elaborate  farther.  Culture  grows 
up  richer,  it  completely  fills  minds  according  to  their  different 
bents;  each  one  cultivates  his  own  branch,  tries  to  make 
himself  feel  at  home  in  it  according  to  his  condition  and 
occupation  and  to  complete  his  knowledge  through  the 
progress  made  elsewhere.  Whatever  was  valid  in  actual  life 
was  left  alone  without  taking  offence  at  it.  The  contra- 
dictions between  the  results  of  thought  and  the  existing  ordi- 
nances remained  yet  covered  and  did  not  come  forward  with 
great  distinctness  so  that  they  would  have  come  into  collision. 
Everybody  was  too  busy  with  himself  for  entertaining  any 
desire  to  start  a  fight  between  the  external  actuality  and  the 
pressure  for  transformation.  Spain's  development  went  on 
happily  natural.  It  had  no  fixed  ancient  learning  against 
which  the  new  culture  arose  as  an  alien  thing.    The  Jewish 


318  Judaism  and  Its  History 

population  had  passed  over  out  of  plain  conditions  into  the 
new  culture,  and  that  spread  equally  in  all  directions,  philo- 
sophical, linguistical,  Talmudical,  each  peaceably  communi- 
cating with  the  others. 

It  was  different  in  the  empire  of  the  Arabian  East.  There, 
an  old  Talmudic  learning  had  become  already  fixed  since  the 
Babylonian  time.  There  was  the  seat  of  the  Gaonate,  those 
Talmudical  excellencies  who  were  acknowledged  as  the 
highest  religious  authorities,  who  sought  and  found  their 
importance  in  their  Talmudic  learning.  When  the  new  culture 
arose  with  Islam,  the  contradiction  was  soon  felt,  and  the 
attempts  at  compromise  and  reconciliation  were  not  sufficient, 
especially  as  the  culture  in  the  East  was  soon  dimmed,  and 
fell  into  decline.  So  we  meet  at  that  period  with  a  man  who 
at  the  last  yet  vigorously  upheld  the  Gaonate,  and  imparted 
to  it  a  rich  glory  like  a  fine  sunset  on  its  sky.  It  broke  down 
soon  after  him.  The  Gaon  at  Pumbeditha,  Hai  Ben  Sherira 
— his  father  too,  had  been  Gaon  and  had  acquired  great  fame 
as  such — was  justly  considered  a  great  Talmudic  authority. 
He  possessed  rich,  many-sided  knowledge,  but  was  not  favor- 
ably inclined  toward  science  and  especially  toward  philosophy. 
In  a  letter  of  his  to  his  influential  contemporary  in  high 
position  in  Spain,  whom  we  know  already,  prince  Samuel 
Ha-Levi,  who  probably  had  announced  to  him  his  appoint- 
ment as  visier  and  head  of  the  academy,  and  asked  advice  of 
the  older  authority,  he  writes  impressively,  warning  against 
surrender  to  tempting  science,  and  exhorts  him  to  avoid  the 
snares  of  logic  which  catch  everything  in  the  net  of  reason  and 
rules  of  thought.  He  says  science  had  been  given  entry  for  a 
time  in  Bagdad  and  permitted  to  influence  the  religious  life; 
there  too  the  assertion  had  been  made  that  true  knowledge 
of  religion  could  only  be  attained  by  investigation  and 
philosophical  study.  But  it  was  soon  shown  that  it  only  leads 
away  from  compliance  with  the  commandments  and  ordi- 
nances and  brings  unbelief.  Gaon  Samuel  (Ben  Chofni, 
Hai's  father-in-law  in  Sora)  had  cultivated  science  but  had 
given  it  up  after  he  found  out  that  it  led  into  error. 

In  fact,  we  learn  of  Samuel  many  bold  sayings.     For 


The  Orient,  Spain  from  1070  to  1140  319 

instance,  when  Saadias — and  Hai  concurring  with  him — had 
said  of  the  witch  of  Endor,  that  she  could  not  have  conjured 
Samuel  up  through  her  own  power,  but  that  God  had  made 
an  arrangement  by  which  Samuel  appeared  at  the  same  time 
when  the  conjuration  took  place,  Chofni  rejects  that  con- 
ception as  an  improper  one:  ''Nothing  is  to  be  accepted  as 
true,  that  contradicts  reason."  The  tale  should  rather  be 
considered  a  vain  pretence  of  the  witch  who  fraudulently 
said  that  she  saw  Samuel,  when  there  was  nothing  to  see. 
Hai  does  not  rise  to  such  boldness. 

The  Talmudical  writings  contain  legends  of  many  kinds. 
They  are  products  of  the  people*s  poetic  imagination,  folk- 
lore, brought  forth  by  the  people  when  on  the  child's  plane, 
bearing  its  mark.  One  hardly  knows  whether  they  are  a 
merry  play  of  poetic  fancy  or  arise  with  a  claim  of  full  belief; 
such  twilight  of  opinion  corresponds  to  the  child's  plane  of 
culture.  But  when  time  has  progressed,  people  become 
serious  and  want  a  decisive  verdict  upon  them.  Talmudical 
scholars  who  cultivate  science,  leave  such  legends  aside  or 
treat  them  as  dreams,  visions  that  appeared  to  one  or  the 
other  teacher,  or  they  give  them  symbolic  interpretation. 
Hai  would  not  accept  such  expedient,  he  sticks  to  the  plain, 
natural  conception  and,  even  if  he  does  not  want  to  place  the 
most  decisive  importance  upon  the  matter  and  find  the  center 
of  faith  in  them,  he  yet  asks  what  objection  there  be  to 
believing  that  the  heroes  of  a  later  time  were  also  glorified  by 
divine  apparitions  and  that  extraordinary  things  had  hap- 
hapened  to  them. — Thus  in  the  East. 

In  North  Africa  we  meet  yet  excellent  scholars  whose  ideas 
were  more  for  compromise,  but  who  occupied  a  strict  Tal- 
mudical stand  and  acquired  important  fame.  Hai  enjoyed 
great  respect  in  Spain;  he  was  honored  and  when  he  died 
(1038),  he  was  deeply  mourned  and  celebrated  for  his  great 
poetic  merits.  And  yet  his  tendency  did  not  carry  the  day. 
Prince  Samuel,  to  whom  the  above-mentioned  letter  was 
addressed,  as  practical  statesman  may  have  kept  away  from 
high-flying  metaphysical  speculations,  but  he  was  a  man  too 
highly  educated  and  too  much  of  a  bel-esprit  to  run  against 


320  Judaism  and  Its  History 

the  fruits  of  culture  as  they  had  matured  in  Spain.  On  the 
contrary,  the  general  cultivation  of  learning  increased  con- 
tinually and  scientific  labors  expanded.  Great  Talmudists 
also  appear  in  the  succeeding  generation.  Five  men  are 
named  to  us,  all  bearing  the  name  Isaac;  four  of  them  born 
in  Spain;  all  of  them,  in  addition  to  being  excellent  teachers 
of  the  Talmud,  were  well  versed  in  the  various  sciences.  One 
was  an  astronomer,  another  a  poet,  the  third  was  a  philos- 
opher, and  the  fourth  a  linguist,  and  thus  science  and  religious 
discipline  went  together,  hand  in  hand.  The  fifth  Isaac,  a 
very  famous  Talmudist,  Isaac  Alfasi,  was  not  born  in  Spain 
but  came  from  North  Africa  and  was  head  of  the  most  im- 
portant school  at  Lucena.  We  know  him  as  important  only 
in  his  field,  the  Tahnudlcal  literature.  But  with  what  clear- 
ness he  treats  that;  what  soft,  cultured  breath  wafts  through 
that  dry  work  which  puts  the  results  of  the  Talmud  together. 
Nowhere  appears  rude  bluntness,  there  is  no  hard  word 
against  science;  on  the  contrary,  many  a  point  is  bent  and 
many  an  edge  is  smoothed. 

In  all  branches  of  knowledge  men  arise  who  promote 
investigation  and  define  the  results.  They  are  again  crowded 
out  by  men  of  the  succeeding  generation,  so  that  we  know 
their  names  but  only  few  of  their  works;  and  thus  it  may 
suffice  if  I  name  only  one;  Moses  Ben  Samuel  Gikatilia,  who 
belongs  to  the  second  half  of  the  eleventh  century  and  stands 
very  high  as  grammarian,  as  linguist  of  fine  feeling  and  as 
explainer  of  the  bible.  By  the  few  fragments  which  have 
come  down  to  us  of  his  works,  we  recognize  the  independent 
thinker  and  critic  who  acts  in  the  explanation  of  Scripture 
with  bold  frankness,  lays  hold  of  the  problems  with  clear  view 
and  presses  them  toward  their  solution. 

Even  with  an  uninterrupted,  quiet  development,  the 
contrasts  would  gradually  sharpen  and  the  inner,  undimmed 
joy  could  not  last.  But  in  the  first  half  of  the  twelfth  century, 
events  were  preparing  that  must  effect  a  change.  The  power 
of  Islam  in  Spain  began  to  decline.  The  realm  was  divided 
among  several  small  dynasties  which  lost  in  respect  and 
importance.     From   North  Africa  more  and   more   Berber 


Decline  of  Arabian  Power  in  Spain  321 

tribes  forced  an  entry,  savage,  refractory  hordes,  who  soon 
acquired  the  ascendency  over  the  effeminate  Arabians  of 
Spain.  After  having  made  their  conquests,  the  intruders 
were  yet  slowly  civilized,  but  the  stability  of  state  and  of 
culture  were  threatened  by  them.  The  time  was  long  past 
when  the  mighty  arm  of  Abdorrahman  III.  united  nearly  the 
whole  of  Spain  under  his  califate  and  held  down  every  re- 
sistance of  the  original  population.  But  now  the  old  Romanic 
Christian  population  arose  in  opposition  to  the  divided  prin- 
cipalities which  weakened  themselves  still  more  by  mutual 
feuds.  It  was  especially  Castile  where  the  Romanic  or 
Christian  element  erected  a  bulwark.  There  the  church  of 
the  Middle  Ages  first  founded  its  power  firmly,  and  from 
there  the  excursions  constantly  penetrated,  conquering  deeper 
into  Spain. 

The  influences  upon  culture  in  general  and  upon  Jewish  cul- 
ture in  particular  were  of  a  wholly  different  kind  from  those 
proceeding  from  Islam.  Islam  is  poor,  has  few  religious  prin- 
ciples, bases  itself  altogether  on  the  belief  in  the  unity  and 
omnipotence  of  God  and  takes  little  account  of  all  other  aspects 
of  God  and  man.  It  therefore  offers  few  points  of  support  for 
speculation,  but  on  the  same  account  it  opposes  fewer  obstacles 
and  barriers  to  a  free  development  of  reason  and  science. 
Culture  within  Islam  perished  through  the  brutality  of  the 
tribes  that  surged  over  it,  not  through  inner  contradiction  which 
Islam  itself  raises  against  culture.  It  was  different  with  the 
church  of  the  Middle  Ages.  According  to  her  origin  she  made 
it  her  task  to  unite  Judaism  and  paganism  within  herself.  Juda- 
ism offered  the  pure  spirituality  of  God,  His  unity.  His  infinity 
and  perfection,  the  unlimited  in  God  which  therefore  can  not 
be  attained  by  any  physical  representation,  to  whom  no 
image  can  correspond,  for  which  even  the  word  remains 
insufficient,  the  all-comprehending,  unseizable,  impalpable  to 
which  thought  can  not  rise  perfectly,  and  so  much  less,  the 
senses.  On  the  contrary,  paganism  elaborated  its  ideals  to 
the  senses.  Its  divinities  were  not  perfect  beings,  they  were 
only  more  perfect  than  men,  they  were  seizable  ideals,  could 
be  copied  in  individual  appearances,  art  could  approach  them 


322  Judaism  and  Its  History 

and  present  them  to  view.  The  church  of  the  Middle  Ages 
had  the  endeavor  to  unite  those  two  contrasts  within  herself. 
The  infinite,  limitless,  and  spiritual  on  the  one  side,  and  yet 
on  the  other  side  again,  the  individual,  corporeal,  palpable, 
appearing  in  human  shape,  and  represen table  to  human 
senses.  In  the  expression  "Godman,"  those  contrasts  are 
forced  together  into  a  word  which  language  attains  by  side- 
by-side  position,  without  designating  a  clear  thought  by  it. 
But  the  church  strove  to  reconcile  those  two  contrasts,  or 
rather,  to  push  and  slide  them  into  each  other  and  thus  to 
assert  them  as  an  actually  existing  unity.  She  fought  against 
every  tendency  which  placed  one  of  the  sides  in  the  back- 
ground and  did  not  permit  in  that  union  either  the  divine 
in  its  ideal  unity,  or  the  human,  to  come  forward  sufficiently. 
Either  was  heresy.  The  two  natures  of  equal  power,  the 
human  and  the  divine  in  their  union,  in  perfect  mutual  pene- 
tration, that  was  fixed  as  the  only  true  faith. 

That  desire,  to  slide  the  corporeal  and  the  spiritual,  the 
sensible  and  the  infinite  supersensible  into  each  other,  resounds 
everywhere  as  supreme  principle  in  the  church.  From  that 
follows  the  other  desire,  that  in  certain  corporeal  apparitions, 
the  fullness  of  the  spirit  should  be  recognized  as  perfectly 
indwelling.  In  the  host,  divinity  itself  was  to  be;  from  the 
relics  or  fragments  of  saints*  bodies,  spiritual  mercies  were  to 
proceed.  The  individual,  ecclesiastical  actions  did  not  pass 
as  simple  means  serving  for  consecration  and  religious  uplift; 
they  became  sacraments,  including  within  themselves  a  full- 
ness of  divinity  and  mercy  which  pours  out  upon  the  per- 
former. Such  a  religious  tendency  prescribes  certain  results 
to  philosophy,  it  does  not  remain  passive  about  the  product 
of  speculation,  it  dictates  where  the  striving  must  arrive  and 
what  its  goal  must  be.  It  commands — as  it  actually  hap- 
pened during  the  long  period  of  the  church's  dominion  over 
the  minds — that  the  greatest  efforts  be  made  to  comprehend 
and  unify  those  contrasts.  Truly  astonishing  resources  of 
mind  have  been  exhausted  and  wasted  without  the  Middle  Ages 
arriving  at  anything  beyond  formulas  and  skeleton  scholastics. 
At  a  later  period,  the  church  itself  fought  against  the  con- 


Tendency  of  the  Church  323 

sequences  of  that  basic  tendency.  Protestantism  put  aside 
the  most  glaring  parts  without,  however,  surrendering  the 
root  out  of  which  they  had  naturally  sprouted,  and  thus  the 
contrasts  are  now,  as  then,  unreconciled  in  their  existence. 
Whether  a  solution  may  yet  be  attained,  can  be  left  to  the 
future.  The  church  of  the  Middle  Ages  put  the  contrasts 
side  by  side  without  permitting  them  to  be  considered  con- 
trasts; they  should  rather  be  recognized  as  perfectly  united 
and  mutually  penetrated. 

Where  the  church  dominated,  that  tendency  was  the 
mental  air  that  was  breathed  by  all,  even  those  who  did  not 
profess  Christianity.  Its  influence  upon  the  development  of 
Judaism  within  the  Christian  countries  can  not  be  misunder- 
stood. Its  full  measure  appears  only  later  when  the  undis- 
puted domination  of  the  church  asserted  itself.  The  later 
Jewish  mystic  is  a  product  of  that  influence;  the  cabala  with 
its  effort  to  prove  how  divinity  limits  itself  to  let  the  ter- 
restrial proceed  from  it,  how  the  terrestrial  beings  on  their 
side  affect  the  spiritual  order  of  the  universe  by  the  practice 
of  the  several  ceremonies,  and  how  thus  a  mutual  penetration 
and  interweaving  arises.  But  even  at  that  time  and  especially 
in  Castile,  that  basic  tendency  of  the  church  could  not  fail  to 
have  a  partial  effect  upon  the  conception  of  Judaism,  especially 
upon  such  men  as  felt  the  want  of  a  fervent  heart  and  had 
a  poetic  temperament.  While  fully  rooted  in  Judaism,  they 
took  a  certain  coloring  from  the  church,  because  just  for 
poetic  temperaments  such  a  tendency  has  great  attraction. 
For  as  it  put  fetters  on  speculation  and  liberty  of  philos- 
ophical and  clear  thought,  the  heart  and  fancy  love  to  pour 
out  all  their  riches  upon  the  singular,  to  reverse  the  individual 
and  palpable  as  something  higher,  to  embrace  with  all  fervor 
and  to  spread  the  whole  glory  of  the  divine  over  it. 

We  meet  a  thinker  of  poetic  geniality  who  remains  an 
ornament  of  Judaism  for  all  times  and  yet  appears  with  the 
designated  coloring  of  his  views  in  Juda  Ha-Levi,  Arabian 
name  Abul  Hassan,  born  about  1080  in  Castile,  died  about 
1140  in  Palestine.  Juda  is  an  amiable  character  and  im- 
portant man.     Not  satisfied  with   that  speculation  which 


324  Judaism  and  Its  History 

feeds  on  philosophic  generalities,  he  demands  something  more 
personally  seizable  upon  which  he  can  lean  his  warm  heart 
and  which  he  can  take  into  his  poetic  breast.  To  recognize 
God,  the  proof  which  rises  from  full  actuality  into  constantly 
attenuated  abstraction,  does  not  suffice  to  him;  that  is  not 
sufficiently  alive  for  him,  is  nothing  individual  which  one 
may  love,  worship  and  revere.  Of  course  he  carries  Him 
within,  in  his  heart,  in  his  longing,  as  he  so  often  sublimely 
expresses  it  in  his  religious  poems;  yet  more  vivid  He  is 
recognized  by  him  in  history,  especially  in  that  of  Israel. 
Here  God  appears,  personally  causing  effects,  shows  Himself 
as  the  power  which  rules  everywhere  and  leads  to  definite 
ends.  In  general  the  influence  of  God  upon  individual  men 
appears  with  him  in  the  foreground,  for  full  life  is  only  in  the 
individual  and  personal.  The  revelation  of  God,  he  says,  was 
first  addressed  to  the  first  man,  upon  him  the  full,  immediate 
influence  of  God  was  poured  out,  the  fullness  of  the  divine 
spirit  entered  into  him.  From  him  the  inspired  divine 
disposition  goes  over  into  his  descendants  by  corporeal 
propagation.  In  some,  that  divine  afflatus  is  veiled,  some- 
times by  their  own  fault,  sometimes  by  a  chain  of  unfavorable 
circumstances,  is  dimmed  and  condensed  in  the  descent  more 
and  more  into  gloomy  materialism.  But  in  others  it  appears 
through  favorable  conditions  or  through  self-ennobling  efforts 
with  unlimited  enlargement  and  becomes  true  divine  illumi- 
nation. Thus  the  divine  spirit  entered  into  the  patriarchs, 
from  them  into  Israel,  especially  into  the  prophets,  and  thus 
it  is  inherited  on  and  on  in  Israel,  even  in  its  dispersed  indi- 
viduals. It  is  an  inheritance,  interwoven  in  body  and  soul, 
and  indestructible. 

As  through  the  persons,  so  the  divine  spirit  runs  through 
the  ordinances,  even  if  they  are  not  comprehended  in  their 
deeper  meaning,  yet  carrying  ennobling  force  and  cementing 
the  ties  to  divinity.  While  the  ancient  teachers  say  of  many 
ordinances  that  they  are  to  be  observed  as  commandments 
issued  by  God  and  to  be  practiced  in  pure  obedience,  without 
entering  into  reasons  for  them,  Juda's  deeper  sentiment  was 
not  satisfied  with  that,  neither  did  he  want  to  look  for  forced 


JuDA  Ha-Levi  325 

reasons  which  would  deprive  them  more  of  consecrative 
character  than  add  to  their  illumination.  No — ^and  here  it  is 
especially  where  the  influence  of  the  church  becomes  visible 
— no,  he  says,  those  ordinances  are  imbued  with  the  divine 
spirit,  they  eff"ect  ennoblement  and  spirituality  of  themselves, 
the  consecration  placed  in  them  by  God  pours  out  upon  those 
who  practice  them.  He  gets  into  a  tight  squeeze  with  a  few 
ordinances;  with  all  his  visionary,  enthusiastic  tinge  and  yet 
plain,  unsophisticated  sense  he  finds  it  difficult  to  attribute 
to  them  consecrating  force.  He  does  not  mistake  that  many 
a  Talmudical  ordinance  looks  too  much  like  a  cunning  evasion 
or  an  artificial  shift.  It  is  plain  how  he  is  troubled  by  that 
view  because  he  returns  to  it  several  times,  yet  he  finally 
shakes  off  his  hesitation.  If  it  is  prescribed  in  the  bible, 
he  says  for  instance,  that  a  greater  distance  should  not  be 
traveled  on  the  Sabbath  nor  a  burden  carried  outside  of  a 
narrow  limit,  how  can  the  long  road  he  squeezed  together  and 
outside  territory  be  turned  into  one's  own  by  an  artificial 
arrangement,  eruh,  in  contradiction  to  the  actual  conditions, 
fancifully  changing  and  getting  around  the  prohibition? 
But  the  force  of  the  system  gets  over  such  scruples  also. 
Such  arrangements,  too,  carry  a  consecration  which  we  can- 
not recognize  but  is  still  hidden  within  them.  If  you  want 
to  inquire,  he  adds,  and  seek  after  reasons  only  according  to 
your  intelligence,  then  you  shake  all  firm  foundations;  you 
must  surrender  yourself  to  the  influence  of  the  outpouring 
consecration  and  subject  your  reason  to  it. 

What  he  asserts  of  the  several  practices  holds  good  also  of 
the  places.  The  ancient  teachers  have  especially  accentuated 
the  peculiar  sanctity  of  Palestine.  There  was  the  Temple ;  there 
was  the  dwelling  place  of  the  independent  realm;  there  only, 
the  ordinances  could  be  practiced  in  proper  completeness. 
Yet  there  is  but  a  very  weak  indication  that  perhaps  Palestine 
or  Jerusalem  pours  out  sanctity  or  spreads  greater  consecra- 
tion even  at  a  time  when  the  Temple  was  destroyed,  the  realm 
dissolved,  and  Israel  no  longer  gathered  there.  The  Baby- 
lonians asserted  the  contrary  with  all  decision:  It  is  sinful 
to  emigrate  from  Babylonia  to  Palestine.    With  Juda  we  first 


326  Judaism  and  Its  History 

meet  the  idea  of  the  sanctity  of  Palestine  even  in  its  devasta- 
tion. According  to  him,  the  grace  of  God  has  located  there 
for  all  times,  there  the  junction  of  the  divine  and  the  corporeal 
is  lastingly  established,  there  was  the  place  of  full  revelation, 
those  localities  have  received  the  stream  of  sanctity,  it  never 
dries  up  from  them,  they  bear  the  indelible  mark  of  holiness. 
Therefore,  for  him  the  grace  of  God  was  still  pouring  forth 
upon  the  ruins  of  Jerusalem,  the  gates  of  heaven  still  com- 
municated with  the  broken  gates  of  the  holy  land,  from  there 
a  transfigured  and  transfiguring  light  was  still  going  out 
over  all. 

Those  views  Juda  Ha-Levi  presented  in  a  religious- 
philosophical  work  of  which  the  introduction  is  characteristic 
enough.  Beginning  with  the  realm  of  the  Chazars,  the  rulers 
of  which  professed  Judaism,  he  lets  that  king  appear  before 
us,  who  first  accepted  Judaism.  A  devout,  thinking  man,  as 
reverential  toward  God  as  benevolent  toward  his  subjects, 
he  lived  in  natural  religion.  In  dreams  there  appears  to  him 
several  times,  an  angel  who  speaks  to  him:  "Thy  disposi- 
tion is  pleasing  to  God,  but  not  thy  actions."  Troubled  by 
such  exhortations,  he  sends  for  the  priests  and  teachers  of  the 
different  religions.  Since  Islam  and  Christianity  point  to 
Judaism  as  the  mother  religion,  he  turns  to  Judaism,  and 
thus  Juda  develops  in  the  dialogue  between  the  king  and  the 
Jewish  teacher,  his  own  views,  the  basic  thought  of  which 
we  have  given,  with  instructive  fullness  of  thought  and 
powerful  fervor  of  sentiment.  At  the  close,  when  the  Jewish 
master  thought  to  have  accomplished  his  task,  he  announces 
his  resolution  to  go  to  the  holy  land.  "How,"  says  the  king, 
"what  do  you  want  there  now?  It  is  laid  waste,  the  Temple 
stands  no  more,  dangers  of  various  kinds  surround  you,  what 
good  will  staying  there  afford  you?  Can  you  not  lead  a 
devout  life  anywhere?**  "Well,**  replies  the  teacher,  "if  we 
are  prevented  from  going  there,  if  our  settling  there  is  impos- 
sible, God  will  accept  my  sentiments  and  my  actions  in  any 
other  country;  but  if  there  is  any  possibility,  heart  and  duty 
call  me  there.  If  the  land  is  but  a  place  of  ruins,  then  I 
must  journey  over  the  rubbish;  if  I  can  not  perform  my 


JuDA  Ha-Levi  327 

devotions  in  the  Temple,  the  ruins  and  remaining  fragments 
are  so  consecrated  that  the  heart  finds  noble  nourishment  and 
greater  uplift  in  them."     And  the  king  lets  him  go. 

The  teacher  is  Juda  Ha-Levi  himself.  He  has  not  talked 
the  matter  over  with  a  king  of  the  Chazars,  but  weighed  it 
seriously  in  his  mind,  and  it  pressed  him  on  and  on  more 
irresistibly.  His  countrymen  meet  him  with  decided  oppo- 
sition, for  the  tendency  of  the  Arabian  Jews  of  that  time  was 
nothing  like  that  of  Juda.  He  is  not  understood,  he  is 
reminded  with  sober  admonitions,  he  is  almost  a  subject  of 
mockery.  But  he  can  not  do  otherwise,  his  poetic  longing 
must  find  satisfaction  in  the  journey. 

For  Juda  Ha-Levi  was  a  poet,  a  poet  of  the  noblest  kind, 
of  the  most  fervid  depth  of  heart,  of  the  most  brilliant  pre- 
sentation. He  appears  perfectly  ready  in  early  youth,  and 
when  he  is  a  mere  boy,  sends  a  poem  to  a  famous  man  and 
poet;  the  latter  designates  the  effusion  with  the  following 
words: 

"A  writing  like  the  morning's  glow, 
A  song — a  wreath  of  spirit's  bloom, 
Of  sound  so  strong,  tender  and  soft, 
Of  noble  sense,  deep  and  aloft. 
Yet  still  a  lad,  my  dear  young  son, 
How  comes  it  that  you  are  so  wise? 
Such  diving  in  the  depths  of  knowledge, 
Such  rising  to  the  heights  of  view?" 

His  poetic  force  is  revealed  in  all  his  pieces  as  it  pours 
out  over  the  most  various  subjects,  especially  wherever  his 
tender  elegiac  sentiment  can  come  forward — in  religious 
hymn  and  in  longing  for  Palestine.  A  few  samples  may  be 
enough  as  proof. 

"God,  I've  plainly  heard  Thy  call, 

Thee  I'll  faithful  serve  in  all, 
Shall  not  question,  shall  not  scan  ' 

Nor  be  so  bold  to  grasp  Thy  plan. 
Thou  art  my  refuge,  rock  and  shield, 

Thou  art  the  light  that  goes  through  all. 
Each  soul  to  Thee  in  praise  does  yield. 

My  own  heart,  too,  breaks  forth  in  song. 


328  Judaism  and  Its  History 

"The  heavens  in  fear  and  trembling 

Proclaim  Thy  honor  and  glory. 
Thy  messengers,  angels  assembling, 

Bear  witness  to  the  old  story. 
How  without  tiring  or  slumber 

Thou  sustainest  beings  without  number: 
Angels  on  the  ether's  flow. 

Creatures  of  the  earth  below. 

"Who  the  hidden  God  can  find? 

Yet  in  His  all-gracious  mind 
He  to  all  His  sons  descends. 

Shows  Himself  in  holiness. 
And  the  prophets  do  behold 

Him,  not  as  figure,  not  a  face, 
Yet  as  ruler,  high,  sublime. 

Great  in  wisdom,  full  of  grace. 

"His  working!    Who  can  fully  trace? 

But,  O  man,  do  not  delay 
To  render  homage  unto  Him  whose  place 

Is  all  the  suns  and  worlds  and  space. 
Unto  Him  give  all  the  honor! 

Without  change  or  pretense 
Reverence  what  He  may  dispense 

And  give  thanks  to  the  donor. 

"Know  thyself!  and  wonder 

What  you  are  and  who's  your  founder. 
Upon  God's  handiwork  ponder, 

It  announces  to  you  His  grandeur. 
Inquiring  too  much  is  but  sinning. 

Entertain  no  bold  pretenses, 
Impenetrable  has  been  from  beginning 

What  is  hidden  from  our  senses." 

Juda  was  a  physician  of  great  practice  and  highly  honored. 
He  had  an  only  daughter  who  bore  two  grandsons,  Juda  and 
Asarel.  He  was  fond  of  and  bound  up  in  his  house,  his  home 
and  his  family;  and  yet  he  tears  himself  away,  leaves  his 
hpme;  he  must  go  to  Palestine,  to  Zion,  which  shines  to  him 
from  afar  and  which  he  glorifies  in  song: 

"  For  my  God's  dwelling  I  am  forced  to  depart. 
Where  the  anointed  throned,  there  is  my  heart. 
No  longer  I  find  joy,  my  loved  ones  to  kiss. 
My  longing  prevents  me  the  garden  to  miss 


JuDA  Ha-Levi  329 

Which  I  planted  and  worked  as  a  pleasant  pursuit. 

Oh  how  I  cared  for  its  growth  and  its  fruit. 

Of  Asarel  and  Juda  I  dare  not  even  think, 

Though  they  be  of  my  family  the  most  beautiful  link, 

Nor  of  Isaac  whom  like  a  son  I  did  hold, 

And  at  my  sun  he  did  to  manhood  unfold. 

The  place  I  forget  where  in  prayer  I  stood. 

Where  in  searching  for  God  my  soul  found  its  food, 

The  joy  of  the  sabbath  that  filled  the  whole  house 

The  festival's  rest  which  freshened  us  all; 

All  those  I  give  up  of  my  own  free  will 

And  trust  to  the  sea  for  a  voyage  until 

My  eye  will  behold  where  God's  glory  was  shown 

And,  with  satisfied  look,  may  claim  it  its  own. 

There  I  shall  sit,  cooled  by  that  heavenly  air, 

And  daily  bathe  in  Jordan's  flood  so  fair; 

There  shall  I  praise  and  sing  and  cheer. 

Hasten,  ye  months,  to  bring  that  glorious  time  near." 

He  tears  himself  away.  He  goes  by  the  way  of  Egypt. 
There  too,  friends  besiege  him  with  doubts:  *'You  want  to 
go  to  Palestine?  Alas,  the  soil  there  is  waste.  Remain  with 
us.  In  Egypt  too,  there  was  a  revelation  of  God ;  it  was  the 
first  place  where  the  wonderful  appearance  of  God  brought 
help  and  redemption  to  Israel."  But  he  cannot.  They  try 
to  keep  him  with  bonds  of  love,  but  he  breaks  away: 

"How?    May  body's  wants  then  set  at  naught 
The  heart's  imperative  word:    You  ought? 
What  is  still  left  to  me  in  life, 
For  what  can  I  yet  plan  and  strive. 
Than  to  behold  thee,  noble  soil, 
Sacred  by  high-bred  priests*  and  prophets'  toil? 
In  pain  I  broke  the  family  ties 
And  miss  my  Spanish  ground  and  skies, 
And  cross  the  seas,  traverse  the  plain. 
Repel  the  friends  who  would  retain. 
Make  company  with  savage  throng, 
Their  moan  and  howl  to  me  is  song. 
No  lure  to  me  is  Egypt's  sight, 
Canaan  attracts  me  with  irresistible  might. 

"For  that  I'm  blamed  by  their  cold  reason 
Which  simply  thinks  of  present  season. 
I  suffer  still  and  dumb;  I'll  overcome;  and — 
What  use  to  speak?    Thou  wouldst  not  understand. 


330  Judaism  and  Its  History 

To  them  appears  the  only  thing  of  worth 
Serving  the  great  ones  of  this  earth. 
A  bird  in  the  hand  of  young  boys 
I  was,  with  which  they  had  fun  and  joys. 
No  day  appeared  to  me  fair, 
Meat  and  drink  fed  but  my  care. 
Exhausted,  pressed  down  to  the  sod, 
Serving  but  men,  removed  from  God, 
My  heart  burns  like  the  desert  sand — 
I  travel  forth  to  holy  land. 

"There  in  the  land  of  revelation, 
I  look  for  pardon  and  acceptation; 
There  my  eyes  behold  Mount  Sinai, 
Abarim's  hill  with  Moses'  blessing. 
There  needed  rest  for  body  I  shall  find, 
There  is  peace  for  weary  spirit  and  mind. 
There  is  the  blessed  promised  land 
Where  seers  received  their  high  instruction. 
There  at  the  graves  of  all  my  saints, 
There  I  shall  weep,  pour  out  my  plaints. 
Where  they  lived  and  worked  and  now  rest, 
There  I  shall  be  with  the  blessed. 
Therefore  hasten,  sail  fast,  O  my  ship. 
To  where  the  law  came  from  God's  lip. 

"Yet  I  fear  for  my  youthful  transgression 
Which  on  Time's  page  has  left  its  impression. 
Mature  age  too,  escaping  so  fast. 
Has  it  all  without  errors  passed? 
I  do  not  claim  freedom  from  fault, 
Not  always  I  warded  off  sin's  assault. 
And  yet,  my  heart,  what  will  you  offer 
While  my  soul  such  pain  does  suffer? 
If  the  heart  carries  a  heavy  load. 
It  still  appeals  to  the  pity  of  God 
And  gains  strength  by  confession 
And  quiet  by  Mercy's  intercession. 
Recompense,  reward  or  punish;  I  trust 
Thy  judgments  are  always  just." 

And  he  moves  on.  How  long  he  remained  there,  whether 
his  soul  found  the  deep  refreshment  and  satisfaction,  whether 
it  was  sobered  by  the  ruins,  we  know  not.  No  message 
reaches  us,  yet  legend  knows  how  to  decorate  the  end  of  Juda 
with  proper  dignity.     It  has  invented  a  trait  that  is  drawn 


^- 


JudaHa-Levi  331 

from  a  deep  understanding  of  his  character.  The  tale  runs, 
that  when  he  entered  Jerusalem,  an  Arab  came  galloping 
along  and  rode  him  down,  and  Juda's  last  breath  was  his 
Zion*s  song.  His  longing  was  satisfied,  his  task  was  done; 
arrived  at  the  goal,  the  legend  has  him  finding  life's  end,  too. 
With  poetic  spirit,  Juda  anticipates  the  tendency  of  a  later 
time;  his  contemporaries  did  not  entertain  it.  Culture  in 
Spain  progresses  further,  problems  and  conflicts  rise  with 
greater  distinctness  and  press  for  solution.  Full  of  deep, 
mental  seriousness,  men  attempt  the  task  in  a  manner  which 
towers  high  above  the  fine  labors  of  the  Spanish  time  thus  far. 


X. 

Aben  Esra  and  Maimonides. 

Firmly  and  deeply  rooted  culture  is  not  readily  shaken 
even  when  it  has  to  wrestle  with  great  difficulties  and  is  met 
by  obstructions  not  known  thus  far.  As  if  driven  by  an 
interior  mental  necessity  of  nature,  it  keeps  working  toward 
its  height  even  under  unfavorable  circumstances.  Only  then 
when  its  task  is  accomplished  and  it  has  reached  its  goal,  it 
may  decline  in  weakness  and  quickly  succumb  to  the  storms 
which  break  over  it.  In  Spain,  the  sad  events  which  were  to 
burst  in  over  that  land  and  especially  over  its  Jewish  popula- 
tion, were  already  casting  their  gloomy  shadows  before ;  the  sky 
was  already  covered  with  dense  clouds  and  yet  the  sheaves 
of  the  mind  were  ripening  apace.  The  incursions  of  the 
Berbers  from  North  Africa  were  increasing  in  threatening 
rapidity.  Those  tribes,  rude  and  uncivilized,  filled  with  wild 
fanaticism,  founded  a  few  disconnected  kingdoms;  and  the 
sciences  found  no  patrons  in  them.  About  the  middle  of  the 
twelfth  century,  the  Almohades  arose,  those  fanatical  bands 
who  first  satisfied  their  blind  zeal  in  North  Africa,  in  order 
to  carry  on  similarly  in  Spain.  They  acted  as  if  driven  by 
the  instinct  of  declining  Islam,  and  to  ward  off  the  weakening 
which  culture  caused  to  it,  they  proceed  with  fire  and  sword 
against  science,  and  in  addition,  persecute  the  other  religions 
with  rough  violence.  Christians  and  Jews  were  to  be  toler- 
ated only  when  they  ceased  to  be  Christians  and  Jews  by 
conversion  to  Islam.  Both  confessions  could  be  adhered  to 
only  in  secret.  The  more  serious  minds,  the  men  of  higher 
culture  gradually  sought  to  leave  the  country  in  order  to  live 
publicly  elsewhere  according  to  their  convictions.  Islam  does 
not  carry  on  the  work  of  such  persecution  persistently;  it  does 
not  inquisitorially  invade  houses  and  hearts  and  the  effect  does 
not  slink  destructive  and  enervating  into  the  marrow  of  the 


Aben  Esra  333 

mind,  but  anyway,  that  persecution  is  like  a  mildew  that  falls 
upon  the  growing  crops. 

At  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century  those  circumstances 
had  not  yet  reached  their  full  severity  and  the  mental  move- 
ment was  not  disturbed  in  the  regularity  of  its  progressive 
development.  Even  the  influence  of  the  Romanic-Christian 
element  which  grew  stronger  and  spread  more  and  more  with 
the  disruption  of  the  Spanish-Arabian  power,  was  in  general 
little  to  be  noticed,  although  individual  soft  hearts,  like  Juda 
Ha-Levi,  were  not  entirely  proof  against  its  impressions. 
Castile  was  Christian,  and  yet  Jewish  culture  within  it  was 
Arabian  through  and  through.  The  Jewish  inhabitants  of 
that  part  of  the  country  were  always  in  closest  connection 
with  the  Spanish-Arabian  Jews,  and  were  drawn  by  their 
mind  and  sentiment  toward  the  place  where  they  found 
higher  mental  development.  A  number  of  highly  cultured 
men  meet  us  about  that  time,  men  who  excelled  in  the  most 
various  ways,  yet  without  adding  any  new  element  or  elabor- 
ating any  old  one  with  greater  distinctness  or  clearness. 

Only  two  men  tower  above  the  others  in  such  manner  and 
deserve  our  careful  consideration.  A  younger  contemporary 
and  fellow-Castilian  of  Juda  Ha-Levi,  Abraham  Ben  Meir 
Aben  Esra,  born  at  Toledo  in  1093,  died  in  Rome  in  1167.  A 
man  of  extraordinary  versatility,  an  acutely  penetrating  mind 
and  a  pliable  cleverness.  He  possessed  the  Arabian  culture 
and  the  Jewish  learning  of  that  time  in  all  directions  to  per- 
fection, and  yet  the  place  of  his  birth  seems  to  have  exercised 
a  certain  disadvantageous  influence  upon  him  because,  as  I 
think,  although  familiar  with  the  Arabic  language  and 
perfectly  at  home  in  the  Arabian  literature,  he  had  not 
become  so  fully  master  of  the  Arabic  as  to  become  an  author 
in  it.  He  lived  among  the  Romanics,  his  mother  tongue 
accordingly  was  not  the  Arabic,  and  the  supposition  lies  close 
that  he  learned  it  but  was  not  able  to  handle  it  for  literary 
work.  Else  it  would  be  surprising  in  the  highest  degree  that 
we  have  no  work  of  Aben  Esra  in  Arabic  written  during  the 
period  when  he  lived  in  Spain;  that  is,  while  in  his  youth  and 
vigorous  manhood — the  smaller  ones  said  to  be  of  that  time 


334  Judaism  and  Its  History 

are  dubious — and  that  no  work  of  his  has  appeared  in  Arabic. 
That  circumstance  weighed  down  the  entire  Middle  Ages  and 
in  the  same  manner  heavily  handicapped  the  Jewish  scholars 
of  that  time,  namely,  that  they  had  no  speech  in  which  they 
conversed  and  thought  and  wrote,  but  had  to  translate  their 
thoughts  into  a  dead  language,  had  to  cast  their  feelings  into 
standing  forms,  which  detracts  liveliness  from  the  course  of 
thinking,  and  freshness  from  the  presentation.  Only  about 
1140,  when  Aben  Esra  as  a  matured  man  had  attained  the 
age  of  forty-seven  years,  the  first  larger  work  of  his  appeared 
and,  from  thence,  work  rapidly  succeeds  work.  Nearly 
everyone  gives,  in  addition  to  the  date,  the  place  of  composi- 
tion; they  are  written  outside  of  Spain.  As  it  seems,  he  went 
by  way  of  North  Africa  and  Egypt  into  the  Christian  countries 
where  we  see  him  in  Rome,  Lucca,  and  Mantua;  then  into  the 
Provence  where  he  stays  at  Narbonne,  Beziers,  and  Rhodez; 
then  into  Northern  France  where  the  scholars  receive  him 
with  reverence  as  everywhere.  At  all  those  places  as  well  as 
at  those  of  his  later  residence,  he  elaborates  works  for  patrons 
and  friends,  of  which  he  rewrites  a  few  repeatedly.  From 
there  he  goes  to  England  and  does  some  literary  work  there 
during  several  years.  Then  he  makes  the  return  trip,  prob- 
ably along  the  same  route,  until  he  passes  away  from  earth 
at  Rome  in  his  seventy-sixth  year. 

His  life  must  be  called  a  disrupted  one.  A  man  with  the 
complete  Spanish  culture,  living  in  the  Arabian  atmosphere, 
breathing  its  free  mental  air  in  full  drafts — he  is  driven  about 
in  countries  the  tendencies  of  which  he  did  not  share,  whose 
language  was  strange  to  him,  communicating  with  men  who 
occupied  other  points  of  view,  everywhere  at  home,  yet 
nowhere  enjoying  a  home.  He  himself  expresses  his  pain  in 
many  places  about  that  restlessness: 

"Aged,  in  foreign  land  I  wander  without  rest 
Like  the  birds  that  anxiously  coo  for  the  nest." 

He  longed  for  his  native  country  and  yet  dared  not  enter 
it.  The  disturbances  which  had  broken  out  there,  the  fury 
of  the  oppressors  as  he  says,  had  driven  him  forth,  and  so  he 


Aben  Esra  335 

was  wandering  about  and  found  nowhere  a  lasting  home. 
He  was  honored  everywhere,  the  scholars  know  how  to 
estimate  his  importance ;  and  yet  he  had  to  experience  insults 
and  carry  on  fights  with  the  illiberality  and  narrowminded- 
ness  among  the  Jews  in  the  Christian  countries.  He  himself 
occasionally  gives  us  an  account  of  such  happenings.  Some- 
where in  Italy,  he  met  with  a  Jewish  scholar  from  the  Byzan- 
tine Empire,  who  with  the  narrowmindedness  of  his  home  and 
imbued  with  the  Talmudical  spirit,  looked  down  with  con- 
tempt upon  every  scientific  endeavor.  That  man  corre- 
sponded more  to  the  mental  attitude  of  Italy  than  Aben  Esra, 
and  this  one  had  to  hear  how  the  other  abused  all  the  im- 
portant Spanish  scholars,  and  yet  was  treated  with  all  respect. 
He  pours  out  his  pain  at  that  to  a  friend  in  a  poem: 

"My  youthful  hopes  are  under  the  ground, 
My  mouth  and  tongue  in  chains  are  bound 
My  mind  is  sore  with  serious  wound, 
And  restless  roving  strain. 

"O  friend,  here  I  am  rated  vile, 
Around  me  are  madness,  folly  and  guile, 
My  mind  is  now  in  double  exile 
By  scorn,  with  grief  and  pain. 

"How  lucky  if  I  had  but  died. 
While  fortune  yet  with  me  did  abide 
Before  this  rabble  began  to  deride 

And  treat  me  with  grievous  disdain. 

"In  Edom*  is  neither  honor  nor  praise 
For  sages  from  Spain  or  one  of  their  ways, 
Where  ignorance  rules  all  of  the  days, 
Contempt  is  their  only  gain. 

"Yet  if  there  comes  in  a  cricket  from  Greece, 
Of  all  dignity  he  is  given  a  lease, 
And  in  his  mind  he  does  increase 
To  a  giant  on  uppermost  plane. 

"  See  the  winks  and  the  nods  of  the  hypocrite. 
What  bows  he  makes,  how  he  tries  to  fit, 
How  he  presses  their  hands  and  does  never  omit 
To  press  hands  for  money  to  gain. 

*  f^dpm  means  (he  Christian  countries, 


336  Judaism  and  Its  History 

"And  then  he  swells  up,  abuses  the  blessed 
The  great  spirits  now  gone  to  their  rest, 
While  the  empty  heads  who  feather  his  nest 
With  laughter  are  bursting  in  twain. 

"O  masters  and  men!  ye  that  spread  the  light. 
Our  teachers  and  poets,  heroes  in  the  fight 
'Gainst  folly  and  wrong!     Does  this  requite 
The  work  and  stress  of  your  brain? 

"And  now  he  makes  his  voice  resound 
So  loud,  it  must  be  heard  all  around; 
He  pretends  the  Talmud  to  expound, 
And  yet  he  is  weak  in  that  domain. 

"Ask  him  who  does  so  glibly  converse. 
Ask  out  of  the  bible  but  for  one  verse. 
Known  to  a  child  from  the  mouth  of  his  nurse, 
'I  do  not  know'  is  his  refrain. 

"To  make  of  such  a  fool  a  god. 
To  tremble  at  his  wink  and  nod ! 
Yet  fill  they  him  with  meats  and  wash 
Them  down  with  best  champagne. 

"So  feed  him  up  lest  he  grow  less. 
Get  him  purple  and  linen  for  his  dress, 
Maids  for  his  service  also  press. 

Perhaps  absolution  may  be  your  gain. 

"Well,  keep  on  with  serving  his  weight, 
Procession  and  pray  at  his  gate! 
We  shall  stay  true  to  the  word  of  God 
And  true  in  the  spirit's  domain." 

Deep  pain  goes  through  Aben  Esra  during  his  restless 
wandering,  and  the  pain  is  reflected  in  all  his  works.  Pessim- 
ism and  melancholy  shine  through  everywhere.  Just  as  he 
is  at  home  in  every  land  but  without  a  home  in  it,  so  he  is 
at  home  in  every  mental  field  and  yet  finds  no  rest  for  his 
soul  in  any.  Aben  Esra  is  grammarian,  elucidator  of  Script- 
ure, philosopher,  astrologer,  mathematician,  poet,  important 
in  every  branch,  and  yet  he  is  wanting  in  the  union  which 
ties  the  whole  together;  he  lacks  the  penetrating  idea  which 
brings  peace  into  all.  An  unceasing  digression  dominates 
him,  his  mind  hurries  disquieted  from  one  subject  to  another; 
we  notice  that  he  never  finds  full  satisfaction  in  what  he  works 


Aben  Esra  337 

and  cultivates.  I  said  that  Aben  Esra  is  an  astrologer.  That 
is  a  disease  of  an  unsatisfactory  time  and  dissatisfied  minds. 
Times  and  men  who  feel  uneasy  in  the  present  would  like  to 
lift  the  veil  of  futurity  and  look  into  the  mysterious  growth 
in  order  to  get  a  glimpse  of  the  fulfillment  in  the  future  of 
hopes  the  realization  of  which  they  despair  of  for  the  present, 
and  thus  to  gain  peace  by  that  view.  They  would  like  to 
solve  the  riddle  of  the  reason  of  the  contradiction  between 
their  fate  and  the  ruling  of  justice.  They  try  to  recognize  in 
the  stars  a  solution  of  the  riddle  of  futurity  and  also  the 
power  which  guides  terrestrial  conditions  and  to  which  all 
must  submit  without  resistance. 

Aben  Esra  is  the  first  humorous  Jewish  author.  Humor 
as  literary  manner  is  a  beauty-patch  of  modern  literature. 
The  ancients  did  not  know  it,  and  it  really  only  has  its  justi- 
fication if  it  enters  as  a  merry  joke,  as  a  graceful  wrap  for  a 
harmless  thought;  or  vice  versa,  if  it  arises  from  deep,  bitter 
earnest,  tacking  itself  to  the  mean,  revealing  it  in  its  complete 
ridiculousness,  pouring  sharp  lye  over  it,  if  it  works  decom- 
posing in  its  vitals  and  tears  it  with  a  certain  pleasure.  But 
when  it  enters  as  a  surprise  into  serious  investigation,  when 
it  is  wound  as  artistic  drapery  about  the  thought  without 
clinging  to  it  naturally,  when  it  dashes  in  like  a  flash  as 
something  extraneous,  then  it  is  uncalled  for  and  unjustifiable. 
It  always  seems  to  me  of  an  author  to  whom  humor  has 
become  his  manner,  as  if  he  was  not  fully  alive  to  the  subject 
he  treats  of;  a  foreign  subjective  moment  leaps  into  the  center 
and  tears  him  out  of  the  objective  consideration  of  the 
matter  before  him.  His  presentation  is  not  the  faithful 
picture  of  the  thought  produced  by  the  object,  but  he  cal- 
culates it  for  the  future  reader  from  whom  he  wants  to  gain 
a  smile.  He  looks  to  him,  enjoys  his  surprise,  and  listens 
for  the  admiration  which  the  striking  turn  produces.  Aben 
Esra  was  the  first  humorous  Jewish  author,  and  he  may 
perhaps  owe  his  greater  favor  to  his  spicy  manner  of  pre- 
sentation at  a  time  when  taste  was  declining.  Yet  we  must 
acknowledge  that  with  Aben  Esra,  humor  is  not  artificially 
joined  to  the  thought.     It  rather  pours  out  from  within  and 


338  Judaism  and  Its  History 

is  the  expression  of  his  mental  restlessness,  the  dissatisfied 
digression  from  his  subject;  he  must  break  violently  through 
the  fetters  that  confine  him,  he  must  roll  away  the  pressure 
that  hinders  the  full  free  expression  of  his  opinion,  sometimes 
by  fine  irony,  sometimes  by  a  merry  turn. 

For  Aben  Esra  is  a  man  of  depth  and  acuteness  of  mind, 
and  even  though  he  illuminates  all  fields  through  which  he 
travels,  with  bright  rays,  yet  he  makes  you  guess  much  more 
than  he  reveals.  He  is  especially  great  in  explaining  Script- 
ure. There  he  could  treat  the  most  various  branches  in 
motley  changes,  join  thoughts  in  sharp  points  without  sys- 
tematic arrangement,  and  use  and  disseminate,  stimulated  by 
the  variety  of  the  themes,  a  mass  of  scattered  ideas.  In  that 
branch,  Aben  Esra  feels  himself  particularly  at  home;  here 
he  works  with  the  greatest  pleasure  and  with  the  greatest 
success.  Here  too,  he  acts  with  a  boldness  such  as  had 
hardly  been  heard  before  him  and  has  for  a  long  time  been 
totally  silent  since,  but  also  again  with  that  mocking  caution 
which  veils  the  bold  expression  or  assumes  the  air  of  taking 
it  back.  Aben  Esra  is  the  Jewish  exegetist  who  mostly  uses 
biblical  criticism  and  who  gathers  for  us  the  accounts  of  the 
more  ancient  teachers  who  worked  in  like  manner  at  the 
Scriptures.  No  difficulty  escapes  his  eye,  and  he  has  the 
courage  to  confess  the  difficulty  and  call  attention  to  it.  For 
instance,  if  he  finds  that  places  the  names  of  which  owe  their 
origin  to  later  events  are  mentioned  with  those  names  in  the 
older  writings,  in  the  Pentateuch,  he  says,  "  Here  is  a  mystery, 
or,"  he  adds  at  once,  "this  is  here  so  designated  by  prophetic 
foreknowledge."  As  in  this  case,  so  in  other  matters  that 
belong  to  a  later  time  and  yet  are  in  earlier  accounts,  he 
points  to  a  mystery  which  he  reveals  while  he  covers  it.  In 
one  place  he  puts  a  number  of  such  passages  together,  of 
which  he  asserts  that  they  belong  to  the  same  category,  but 
that  a  wise  man  keeps  quiet  about  them.  Of  course,  the 
mystery,  which  consists  in  the  fact  that  such  passages  can 
only  have  been  written  at  later  times,  was  not  hidden  from 
intelligent  teachers,  and  the  judgment  about  that  bold 
indication  was  very  different  according  to  the  position  of  the 


Aben  Esra  339 

judge.  For  instance,  Nachmanides  says  about  it,  "Rabbi 
Abraham  says  there  is  a  mystery;  well,  I  shall  be  the  traitor 
and  make  the  mystery  known."  And  then  he  abuses  Aben 
Esra  in  severe,  unseemly  terms.  On  the  other  hand,  a  later 
writer  of  the  middle  of  the  fourteenth  century,  a  great  admirer 
of  Aben  Esra  and  yet  fully  convinced  of  his  orthodoxy  which 
he  wanted  to  save  against  all  attacks,  says  in  naive  sincerity, 
**  Aben  Esra  says  there  is  a  mystery  here;"  i.  e.,  these  passages 
cannot  have  been  written  by  Moses,  they  must  have  been 
added  by  later  prophets.  Does  that  matter?  Whether 
written  by  Moses  or  by  later  prophets,  they  remain  prophetic 
words. 

Aben  Esra  is  an  expounder  who  enters  deeply  into  the 
natural  and  plain  sense  of  the  text  and  therefore  perceives 
that  in  accordance  with  such  proceeding  he  is  often  obliged 
to  differ  f^om  the  interpretation  which  the  Talmudists  and 
the  Rabbinists  following  in  their  footsteps  give  to  them  in 
order  to  find  a  foundation  for  regulations.  He  gives  the 
natural  exposition  full,  circumstantial,  and  clear,  but  adds: 
**We  should  explain  thus,  if  it  were  not  for  tradition,  but 
tradition  is  valid,  and  the  insight  of  our  teachers  was  deeper 
and  clearer  than  ours;  we  have  to  stand  by  it."  But,  is  it 
not  enough  if  he  cast  the  flashes  of  lightning  into  the  dark 
night  of  the  Italian,  French  and  English  sky  of  that  time? 
Was  he  not  forced  to  cautiously  cover  the  points  which,  if 
inclined  or  intended  to  pierce  more  deeply  into  those  regions, 
would  certainly  have  been  turned  against  him?  It  might  also 
be  explained  psychologically,  if  his  clear  view  were  sometimes 
dimmed  within  that  stiffened  environment  where  thought 
found  no  receptive  soil  and  proper  words  no  echo,  that  he 
thus  sometimes  lost  confidence  in  himself.  With  all  such 
necessary  imperfections,  Aben  Esra  is  one  of  the  clearest 
minds,  one  of  the  most  talented  thinkers  of  the  rich  Spanish 
development.  The  sparks  which  he  emits  are  not  simply 
momentary  crackling  sparks  of  wit,  but  thought  sparks  that 
give  steady  light  for  all  times.  He  possesses  inextinguishable 
force,  so  that  the  most  important  minds  gladly  accepted  his 
support  and  were  instructed  by  him. 


340  Judaism  and  Its  History 

That  which  Aben  Esra  lacked,  namely,  complete  tendency 
to  reconciliation  with  his  own  mind  and  therefore  a  systematic 
rounding  out,  a  younger  contemporary  possessed,  and  through 
that  he  became  the  maker  of  an  epoch.  Moses  Ben  Maimon, 
with  the  Arabian  name  Abu-Amran  Musa  Ben  Abdallah,  and 
generally  known  as  Maimonides,  was  born  at  Cordova  on 
March  30,  1135.  His  father  Maimon,  was  a  pupil  of  the 
highly  esteemed  Joseph  Ben  Migash,  pupil  and  successor  of 
the  famous  Isaac  Alfasi  at  Lucena.  Maimon  was  Dayan 
(judge)  in  his  native  city  of  Cordova,  then  one  of  the  most 
flourishing  cities  of  Spain. 

He  was  an  able  Talmudist  and  at  the  same  time — which 
was  a  matter  of  course  with  the  men  of  his  kind  in  Arabian 
Spain — a  thoroughly  educated  man  in  science.  His  son  Moses 
received  his  education  from  him  and  was  initiated  from  his 
early  youth  into  the  various  branches  of  science.  He  soon 
became  as  well  versed  in  the  Talmud  as  at  home  in  the  other 
scientific  training.  As  Saadias,  the  pioneer  of  the  Jewish- 
Arabian  tendency,  tried  to  acquire  the  entire  field  of  knowl- 
edge, just  as  he,  when  Gaon,  as  representative  of  the  prevail- 
ing Talmudical-Judaism  and  at  the  same  time  as  philosopher, 
linguist,  and  expounder  of  Scripture,  took  the  initiative  for 
the  new  foundation  of  a  united  scientific  and  Jewish-religious 
development  of  thought,  so  we  find  in  Maimonides  the  full 
possession  and  domination  of  the  two  separate  mental  fields. 
While  among  Spanish  scholars  in  general,  one  tendency 
prevails,  some  being  able  Talmudists  with  only  moderate 
general  acquirements,  and  others,  men  of  science  with  but 
general  Talmudic  knowledge,  we  find  both  equally  united  in 
Maimonides.  He  dominates  the  various  branches,  which 
formed  the  learning  and  the  mental  ornament  of  the  Jewry 
of  the  times,  with  equal  excellence.  As  a  practising  phy- 
sician his  studies,  theoretically  as  well  as  practically,  must 
have  produced  a  much  wider  expansion  of  his  mental  sweep. 

The  life  of  Maimonides  falls  just  into  that  period  which 
threatened  the  most  danger  to  Jewish-Arabianism  in  Spain. 
When  he  was  yet  a  boy,  the  Almohades  invaded  Spain  with 
the  rallying  cry,  "Confess  Islam  or  die!"     Maimon  and  his 


Maimonides  341 

family  for  a  short  time  conformed  with  the  enforced  conver- 
sion, but  soon  made  their  escape  into  Northern  Africa.  There 
too,  in  Fez,  the  Almohades  were  masters,  and  the  stay  there 
could  only  serve  as  a  point  of  passage  until  they  might  get, 
by  way  of  the  sea  and  Palestine,  to  Egypt  where  they  could 
again  live  as  Jews,  under  a  high-minded  ruler,  Saladin. 
But  even  during  the  time  of  repression  as  well  as  later,  when 
Moses  again  breathed  in  liberty,  the  activity  of  his  mind  was 
not  interrupted.  Already  in  Spain,  he  began  to  elaborate 
his  first  larger  work,  the  commentary  to  the  Mishnah,  in 
which  he  revealed  the  intention  which  he  pursued  through 
his  whole  life,  and  the  impulse  which  forced  him  from  writing 
to  writing.  He  first  wanted  to  master  the  immense  mass  of 
discussions  as  they  are  put  down  in  the  Talmud  and  spread 
more  and  more  so  that  a  whole  life  is  hardly  long  enough  to 
go  through  it — that  mass  he  wanted  to  master,  form  into  a 
well-ordered  digest,  and  clearly  sum  up  the  result  in  order 
to  save  future  generations  the  labor  of  making  their  way 
through  the  dialectic  thickets.  His  commentary  to  the 
Mishnah  is  short,  intelligible,  and  clear.  He  attempts  to 
present  the  results  of  the  entire  Talmudic-practical  life,  and 
thus  to  offer  to  the  disciples  of  that  science  an  abstract  which, 
he  believed,  would  be  sufficient  for  them. 

But  he  soon  found  that  he  had  not  yet  exhaustively 
elaborated  the  whole  material,  and  he  undertook  that  grand, 
Titanic  work,  the  code,  which  bears  the  name  Mishne  Tora, 
repetition  of  the  law,  or  Yad  Chasakah  (the  strong  hand) ;  the 
latter,  because  it  is  divided  into  fourteen  books,  which  number 
corresponds  to  the  numerical  value  in  Hebrew  to  Yad,  hand. 
In  that  codex  he  knows  how  to  gather  the  different  subjects 
and  the  immense  material  in  intelligible,  clear  order,  so  that 
a  general  view  over  the  whole  is  gained,  and  with  the  exclusion 
of  the  discussions,  everything  is  taken  up  and  put  into 
proper  connection.  He  says  in  the  preface  frankly  and 
sincerely,  for  which  he  was  afterwards  blamed  by  many:  "  I 
have  here  composed  a  work  so  that  if  you  have  read  the  bible 
and  made  yourself  familiar  with  this  work,  you  can  do  with- 
out the  Talmud,  for  you  will  have  complete  knowledge  of  the 


342  Judaism  and  Its  History 

doctrines  of  Judaism  as  it  has  grown  up  Talmudically." 
That  such  an  undertaking — because  it  presents  the  whole 
like  a  finished  structure  in  which  stone  is  fitted  upon  stone  as 
an  inseparable  totality  which,  if  a  part  is  taken  out,  falls  to 
pieces — that  such  an  undertaking  injures  or  prevents  the 
historic  conception,  just  because  it  makes  everything  appear 
as  if  moulded  at  one  casting  without  giving  a  chance  to  suppose 
how  the  times  have  long  labored  at  it  and  have  only  gradually 
put  together  very  various  matters ;  that  it  also  cuts  off  the  pos- 
sibility of  giving  entry  to  the  breath  of  coming  times  for 
bringing  new  life  into  the  torpidity  by  solving,  completing, 
or  reforming  action:  such  disadvantages  Maimonides  could 
not  consider.  For  the  idea  of  looking  at  things  in  their 
historic  development  was  wanting  in  him  as  in  the  entire 
Middle  Ages.  To  them,  whatever  existed,  appeared  as  having 
always  existed  and  as  lasting  forever. 

Already  in  both  of  these  works,  Maimonides  shows  that 
— even  if  their  contents  were  purely  practical — theological 
and  the  whole  matter  of  precept  and  dogma  of  Judaism  as  it 
was  contained  in  the  Talmud,  was  to  be  clearly  put  together 
— he  yet  had  a  higher  motive  in  the  background.  For  wher- 
ever a  chance  offers,  he  strays  over  into  religio-philosophical 
subjects,  attempts  to  illustrate,  takes  pains  to  show  the  deeper 
bases  of  Judaism  and  to  present  the  thoughts  which  give  it 
life  and  support  it,  as  the  most  essential  thing  to  be  achieved. 
Thus  he  had  used  in  his  first  work  the  treatise  of  the  "Fathers" 
to  elaborate  a  moral  code  along  Aristotelian  principles  and 
prove  their  harmony  with  Judaism.  Thus,  among  other 
things  at  the  passage  which  speaks  about  the  exclusion  of 
individuals  from  a  share  in  the  world  to  come,  he  seizes  the 
chance  to  prove  the  bases  of  Judaism  and  designate  them  as 
eternal  and  inviolable  as  he  lays  them  down  in  thirteen  articles 
of  faith.  In  the  same  manner  he  shows  in  his  larger  work, 
not  only  in  many  separate  passages  how  to  point  to  the 
deeper  proof  in  the  moral-religious  idea  which  dwells  in  the 
precepts,  but  he  gives  also,  introducing  in  popular  espression 
a  philosophy  of  religion  as  essential  basis  of  the  dogma, 
philosophic-practical  rules  of  life  and  other  matter  that  can 


Maimonides  343 

be  joined  to  it.  But  all  appears  as  developed  out  of  the 
Talmud,  artificially  based  on  passages  which  he  brings  into 
connection  and  groups  systematically.  Yet  small  space  only 
could  be  given  to  those  philosophical  discussions,  and  they 
had  to  come  in  as  an  occasional  side  issue.  The  work  itself 
was  chiefly  to  serve  to  open  Talmudical  knowledge  to  the 
student  and  at  the  same  time,  as  he  hoped,  to  conclude  it. 
But  his  final  goal  was  not  attained  by  it. 

Maimonides  cultivated  philosophy  with  a  noble  passion, 
metaphysics  was  a  matter  of  heart  to  him ;  in  the  confirmation 
of  the  recognition  of  the  pure  spirituality  of  God  and  His 
perfection  he  saw  the  true  task  of  his  life  and  that  was  not 
completed  in  the  works  he  had  written  thus  far.  As  a  man 
who  had  already  attained  the  zenith  of  life  and  as  a  physician 
in  extensive  practice,  he  went  at  his  chief  work  which,  like 
his  first  one,  the  commentary  to  the  Mishna,  he  wrote  in 
Arabic — ^while  for  the  code  he  had  used  a  pleasing  and  easy 
Hebrew.  That  work  to  which  he  gave  the  Arabian  title 
Dhalalath  Al-Hajirin,  Guide  of  the  Perplexed — better  known 
by  the  name  in  the  Hebrew  translation — Moreh  Nebuchim — 
has  the  exclusive  aim  to  reveal  the  deeper  principles  of 
Judaism,  to  prove  its  complete  harmony  with  philosophy,  to 
adjust  the  opposing  difficulties  and  to  consummate  its  recon- 
ciliation with  science.  Bible  and  Aristotle  are  for  him  two 
infallible  sources.  He  draws  from  them,  they  are  the  two 
basic  books  of  wisdom  which  teach  the  same  thing  in  differ- 
ent expression.  The  pure  spirituality  of  God,  the  perfection 
of  His  being  which  may  not  be  limited  by  anything  even  in 
thought,  is  to  him  the  deepest  principle  of  Judaism;  even  those 
attributes  which  are  spoken  of  God  as  good  and  glorifying 
ones  appear  to  him  a  limitation.  An  attribute  does  not  per- 
fectly inhere  to  the  being,  it  only  approaches  it  in  a  certain 
sense.  But  nothing  is  added  to  God,  all  is  indivisibly  united 
in  Him,  while  an  attribute  of  qualities  presupposes  a  certain 
division  and  asserts  a  composite  unity,  not  one  perfect  within 
Himself  as  God  must  be  thought.  Accordingly,  because 
nothing  individual  can  be  predicated  of  God,  in  order  not  to 
limit  the  conception  thereby,  we  may  only  speak  of  negative 


344  Judaism  and  Its  History 

qualities:  that  no  fault  is  in  Him,  that  no  defect  can  be  thought 
of  Him,  so  that  all  limit  is  removed  and  only  the  complete 
separation  of  all  concrete  and  the  most  high  abstract  may  be 
considered  as  the  only  idea  approaching  Him. 

But  if  there  occur  so  many  corporeal  expressions  about 
God  in  the  bible,  they  are  corporeally  sounding  designations 
for  spiritual  things.  Maimonides  is  not  satisfied  to  say  by 
that,  that  they  are  paraphrases,  pictures,  naive  ways  of 
expression  as  they  have  to  be  used  for  the  understanding  at 
a  low  plane  of  culture.  And  when  he  supposes  that,  he  is 
not  satisfied  with  it,  because  then  the  word  of  the  bible 
would  not  be  significant  enough,  he  rather  asserts  that  there 
is  in  those  corporeal  expressions  also  a  spiritual  meaning. 
The  words,  he  says,  express  different  conceptions  related  to 
each  other,  of  which  one  more  accentuates  the  corporeal  and 
the  other  the  spiritual  moment.  For  instance,  when  we  read, 
"God  stands,"  it  means  he  is  constant,  unchangeable;  if  the 
bible  says,  "He  descends,"  it  means  His  effect  upon  worldly 
matters;  if  the  throne  of  God  is  spoken  of,  that  means  the 
higher  sphere  which  is  more  spiritual  because  it  receives  the 
nearest  effects  from  God;  and  so  on.  He  also  thinks,  in 
general,  that  the  ancients  purposely  express  themselves  in  a 
manner  which  has  an  external  sense  suitably  for  those  of  an 
immature  understanding,  while  the  intelligent  comprehend 
the  deeper  signification  of  it;  that  the  men  of  the  bible  and  the 
Talmud  had,  like  the  ancient  philosophers,  sometimes  pur- 
posely chosen  expressions  and  forms  of  presentation  which 
say  also  something  for  the  ordinary  human,  without  that  he 
recognizes  the  complete  truth,  but  which  disclose  the  deeper 
wisdom  for  the  thinker.  Such  declarations,  he  says,  are 
golden  apples  in  perforated  silver  shells.  To  him  that  stands 
afar,  like  to  a  near-sighted  person,  only  the  silver  shells  are 
visible,  the  more  valuable  contents  within  are  hidden  from 
him;  he  that  approaches  nearer,  like  one  who  has  sharp  eye- 
sight, recognizes  the  golden  apples  through  the  silver  shells. 
Therefore,  the  intelligent  must  look  deeper  into  such  cor- 
poreally sounding  expressions  of  the  ancients,  to  apprehend 
the  truth  hidden  deeper  in  them. 


Maimonides  '         345 

Of  course  God  in  His  spirituality  can  not  be  perceived  by 
the  senses;  therefore  revelation  can  not  be  an  appearance 
which  is  seen  with  the  eyes  or  heard  with  the  ears.  If  former 
philosophizing  theologians,  avoiding  such  a  conception, 
express  themselves  in  effect  that  God  causes  an  appearance 
of  light  to  become  visible  and  creates  a  voice  that  may  be 
heard,  Maimonides  does  not  want  to  contradict  such  a  solu- 
tion straight  out,  it  satisfies  him  if  everything  corporeal  is 
kept  away  from  God,  but  such  a  conception  does  not  cor- 
respond to  his  real  thought.  For  him,  revelation  is  exclusively 
a  purely  spiritual  act,  it  is  the  rising  of  the  human  spirit  to 
the  Divine  Spirit,  which  act  can  of  course  take  place  in  very 
few  men  in  full  measure,  and  is  therefore  the  property  only  of 
select  individuals  in  very  different  degrees.  While  one  can 
rise  only  once  in  his  life  to  that  complete  height  as  if  a  flash 
of  lightning  illuminates  the  horizon  only  for  a  short  time  and 
all  sinks  back  into  darkness,  thus  in  another  one  the  flash  is 
repeated  several  times.  In  a  third  one  it  occurs  still  oftener 
and  with  greater  clearness  and  completeness,  and  in  another 
one,  as  in  Moses,  it  lasts  through  life.  This  spiritual  height 
of  man  is  to  him  revelation,  because  through  it  man  comes 
into  closer  touch  with  the  spirit  of  God. 

In  general,  according  to  his  conception — ^which  dominates 
the  entire  Arabian  philosophy  and  is  by  it  considered  as 
Aristotelian,  while  it  is  really  a  neoplatonic  modification — 
the  whole  universe  is  inspirited  by  degrees  through  the  over- 
flowing of  the  Divine  Spirit.  There  are  various  heavenly 
spheres  which  are  inhabited  by  heavenly  spirits;  the  stars  and 
the  spheres  are  for  him,  as  for  all  philosophers  of  his  age, 
living  beings  of  a  higher  kind.  Thus  the  Divine  Spirit  next 
influences  the  highest  spheres,  from  them  it  descends  and 
permeates  the  lowest  earth  sphere;  the  inspiration  of  which 
is  designated  as  the  effective  reason,  we  are  tempted  to  say, 
as  the  spirit  of  the  earth  which  illuminates  and  guides  all 
terrestrial  beings  and  things.  The  man  who  endeavors  to 
raise  himself  to  that  all-spirit  of  the  earth,  who  is  able  by  his 
deep  thinking  and  by  his  pure  morality,  by  overcoming 
sensuality,  by  liberation  from  limitations  and  prejudices,  to 


346  Judaism  and  Its  History 

purify  and  spiritualize  himself,  enters  into  closer  connection 
with  the  spirits,  he  continually  rises  higher  on  the  scale  of  the 
spheres;  the  prophets  attained  to  the  highest  point.  The 
concept  of  divine  providence  also  signifies  to  him  nothing  else 
than  the  junction  of  the  Divine  Spirit  with  the  human  spirit, 
so,  that  the  enlightened  and  higher  standing  one  stands 
during  his  whole  life  in  closer  connection  with  God  and 
receives  stronger  effusions  of  His  omnipotence. 

In  such  sense  the  reward  of  men  is  also  to  be  apprehended. 
The  man  who  has  arrived  at  a  higher  development  of  his 
mind,  who  has  purified  his  spirit,  who  has  steeled  his  moral 
force,  retains  such  lasting  gain  firmly  and  approaches  God  and 
the  eternal  blessed  spirits.  In  his  system  there  is  of  course 
no  room  for  a  bodily  resurrection,  a  reviving  of  the  body  of 
the  dead.  For  him  the  future  world  is  a  purely  spiritual  life, 
and  in  his  first  work  already,  in  the  commentary  of  the  Mishna, 
he  reveals  that  view  by  a  beautiful  and  significant  compari- 
son. He  says,  he  that  wants  to  instruct  men  and  to  urge 
them  towards  the  good,  must  use  different  ways  of  proceeding 
according  to  the  stage  in  which  they  are,  just  as  it  has  to  be 
done  with  children  with  whom  advance  is  made  gradually. 
If  it  is  desired  to  spur  the  young,  unintelligent  child  to  dili- 
gence in  study,  sweetmeats  are  promised  to  him  as  reward; 
when  he  grows  older,  such  a  reward  produces  no  longer  any 
effect  with  him ;  other  things  are  promised  which  have  greater 
influence.  With  one  of  a  larger  growth,  ambition  is  aroused; 
he  is  told.  My  son,  if  you  are  diligent,  you  will  be  called  a 
master  in  Israel,  you  will  occupy  a  high  position.  All  those 
matters  are  without  him,  by  which  he  may  be  allured.  But 
when  he  has  attained  mature  age,  then  he  can  finally  be  led 
to  a  recognition  of  the  importance  attained  by  the  develop- 
ment of  the  spirit  within  him,  of  the  value  with  which  the 
endeavor  for  the  culture  of  his  soul  endows  him.  In  similar 
manner  the  representation  of  rewards  and  punishments  in  the 
Scriptures  is  to  be  apprehended  as  means  of  education.  The 
true  reward  is  and  remains  the  eternal  life  of  the  mind  and 
spirit;  as  to  the  resurrection  of  the  dead,  we  have  already 
developed  it — and  nothing  more,     And  yet  he  puts  it  up  ag 


Maimonides       ,  347 

one  of  his  thirteen  articles  of  faith.  For  Maimonides  pays 
due  regard  to  public  opinion,  "give  honor  to  general  accept- 
ance." He  does  not  break  the  thin  thread  which  joins  him 
to  the  community,  he  does  not  destroy  the  bridge  which  keeps 
him  in  communication  with  the  mass.  He,  too,  uses,  as  he 
presumes  it  of  the  ancients,  here  and  there  a  form  of  presenta- 
tion which  assumes  a  popular  wrap  but  reveals  his  views 
perfectly  to  the  truly  intelligent.  Gradually  it  may  have 
happened  to  him  as  to  many  other  thinkers  who  chose  the 
same  proceeding  that  the  reader  can  not  judge  with  full 
decision  what  is  form  of  presentation  and  what  is  true  inner 
intention.  And  so  it  gradually  becomes  unclear  in  the  mind 
of  the  thinker  himself,  he  sometimes  grasps  at  the  form  and 
designation  chosen  by  him,  in  order  to  hold  it  fast  as  essential 
and  of  deeper  values. 

Even  about  the  view  of  Maimonides  of  the  creation  of  the 
world,  we  are  therefore,  not  quite  clear.  He  acknowledges 
that  philosophy  asserts  that  creation  proceeded  out  of  existing 
matter  and  that  the  Divine  Spirit  only  shaped  that  matter. 
Thus  says  his  highly  revered  Aristotle;  yet,  he  thinks,  this 
is  the  only  point  in  which  he  must  disagree  with  him.  The 
natural  meaning  of  Scripture  would  by  no  means  force  him  to 
that,  for  they  may  be  interpreted  in  many  ways,  "the  gates  of 
explanation  are  not  closed;"  but  on  the  other  side,  the  proofs 
of  original  matter  are  not  all-convincing,  and  the  general  accep- 
tance in  Judaism  of  creation  out  of  nothing  is  preponderating, 
and  thus  he  joins  that  general  religious  view,  especially 
because,  if  it  should  be  set  aside,  the  possibility  of  miracle 
would  disappear.  If  everything  has  not  come  out  of  God, 
if  matter  has  its  own  independence,  the  miraculous  influenc- 
ing of  the  course  of  things  cannot  be  explained.  He  recurs 
also  upon  miracle  at  the  resurrection  of  the  dead  which  he 
will  not  admit  to  have  contradicted.  The  passages  in  tha  bible 
which  are  referred  to  for  that  dogma,  he  thinks,  all  permit  of 
different  explanation,  only  one  passage  in  Daniel  uses  a  more 
definite  expression;  but  the  general  acceptation  is  so  unan- 
imous that  we  must  follow  it.  It  is  a  miracle,  can  only  take 
place  in  miraculous  manner,  and  we  must  accept  it  as  such. 


348  Judaism  and  Its  History 

But  what  is  his  opinion  of  miracle  itself?  Here,  too,  we 
meet  that  double  presentation  which  retains  a  certain  twilight. 
Already  in  his  earlier  works,  he  pronounces:  The  ancient 
teachers  say,  the  world  goes  its  regular  course ;  whatever  arises 
as  miraculous  is  put  into  the  movement  of  the  world  as  con- 
dition together  with  its  creation,  so  that  it  must  appear  at 
the  given  point  of  time;  the  miracles  are  therefore  not  a 
sudden  event,  not  a  breaking  through  the  eternal  law,  but 
they  are  part  of  the  law  put  into  matter  from  the  very  begin- 
ning. But  with  that,  what  appears  as  miraculous  ceases  to 
be  a  miracle.  The  Israelites,  he  says  in  his  second  work,  did 
not  believe  in  Moses  on  account  of  the  miracles  he  performed, 
for  we  meet  miracles  performed  by  wizards;  but  they  believed 
him  because  they  themselves  had  seen  and  heard,  they  had  a 
revelation  themselves.  Thus  the  miraculous  is  substituted 
for  the  miracle  without  denying  it  straightout.  Its  force  as 
proof  is  set  aside,  and  an  appeal  to  it  is  to  be  adjudged  as 
nothing  but  popular  presentation. 

But  even  in  that  he  attempts  to  effect  many  diminutions 
of  the  miracles.  Individual  revivals  of  the  dead,  as  they  are 
related  of  Elijah,  he  explains  as  cures  only  in  cases  of  trance, 
or  severe  sickness  which  brought  the  patient  near  death  but 
did  not  produce  actual  death.  Many  other  miracles  he  con- 
siders dream-visions,  seen  in  a  trance,  not  actual  events; 
others  he  weakens,  if  he  can  not  do  away  with  them  altogether. 
The  first  men  lived  many  centuries,  then  suddenly  the  high 
age  ceases  and  the  duration  of  life  corresponds  to  ours.  Such 
an  extreme  age  is  plainly  an  exception  to  the  laws  of  nature. 
With  individuals  of  whom  it  is  expressly  mentioned  in  Script- 
ure, as  in  the  case  of  Adam,  Seth,  and  others,  it  must  certainly 
be  admitted;  but  the  other  contemporaries,  "the  sons  and 
daughters"  begotten  by  those  patriarchs,  whose  ages  are  not 
plainly  given,  attained  the  ordinary  age  only.  Later  oppo- 
nents think  that  a  very  insufficient  solution;  for  if  there  be 
one  exception  to  the  law,  there  might  be  others. 

The  resurrection  at  some  future  period  is  a  miracle,  he 
pronounces  several  times;  but  let  us  not  be  too  extravagant  in 
the  provisions  of  that  miracle.     The  dead  rise,  but  they  will 


Maimonides  349 

then  not  live  forever,  they  rise  and  die  again,  after  having 
enjoyed  a  long  and  happy  life.  The  true  goal  remains  the 
eternal  life,  the  immortality  of  the  soul.  A  younger  con- 
temporary replies  to  that,  not  indelicately: 

"  Ton  resurrection  follows  second  death? 
What  good  to  me  this  second  loss  of  breath? 
Out  of  the  grave  I  rather  would  not  rise, 
Than  have  death  to  suffer  twice." 

With  such  discussions  Maimonides  transgresses  beyond 
the  proper  scientific-philosophical  field,  and  he  does  not 
hesitate  to  penetrate  still  farther  into  the  conceptions  and  the 
arrangements  of  every-day  life;  he  wants  to  explain  also  the 
practical  religious  ordinances  and  place  them  in  their  proper 
position.  To  take  them  simply  as  precepts  to  which  we  have 
to  submit  without  further  ado  as  having  proceeded  from  the 
highest  lawgiver,  that  would  not  agree  with  his  general  view. 
They  must  be  effluences  of  the  highest  wisdom,  means  which 
guide  us  toward  a  higher  conception  of  life;  if  we  do  not 
comprehend  them,  they  have  no  value.  Accordingly,  he 
attempts  to  prove  deeper  reasons  for  a  part  of  the  precepts, 
and  of  others  he  thinks  that  they  were  measures  of  protection 
against  former  erroneous  conceptions  and  idolatrous  customs. 
The  sacrificial  service,  for  instance,  has  no  value  for  him,  but 
the  Israelites  were  to  be  weaned  away  from  the  sacrifices 
which  they  brought  to  idols,  and  since  a  complete  abolition 
could  hardly  have  been  effected,  they  were  to  consecrate 
them  to  the  eternal  God,  by  which  they  were  led  away  from 
the  most  injurious  error.  With  many  other  precepts  he 
believes  to  have  historically  found  the  superstitious  ideas  of 
ancient  time  to  which  they  should  make  opposition.  Of 
course,  here  the  highly  uncritical  manner  which  in  his  time 
dominated  the  entire  consideration  of  history,  crops  out. 
Maimonides  with  all  his  contemporaries,  seriously  accepted 
the  intentional  and  legendary  forgeries  which  were  handed 
around  of  an  aboriginal  nation  of  Sabians.  Biblical  and  pagan 
data,  thrown  together  promiscuously,  fitted  that  alleged 
aboriginal  nation  out  wonderfully,  and  Maimonides  uses  them 


350  Judaism  and  Its  History 

to  explain  by  them  the  precepts  of  Scripture  and  partly  those 
of  the  Talmud,  and  thus  prove  their  justification.  Evidently 
this  part  of  the  proof  of  the  pract'cal-Jewish  precepts  is  the 
weakest  of  his  work  and  system.  Such  proof  may  at  the  most 
induce  the  admission  that  they  may  be  considered  admissible 
and  not  contradictory  to  reason,  without  furnishing  any  evi- 
dence for  recognizing  in  them  an  essential  religious  motive  or 
establishing  their  necessity  and  inviolability  or  possessing 
intrinsic  force  of  moral  and  spiritual  elevation.  With  all 
that,  it  must  be  admitted  that  the  existing  precepts  of  practice 
are  considered  as  forever  obligatory  by  Maimonides  himself, 
in  spite  of  his  poor  proof. 

For  Maimonides  occupies  the  point  of  view  of  the  Middle 
Ages,  out  of  which  no  man  of  that  time  could  escape.  The 
Middle  Ages  gave  to  the  individual  no  complete  justification, 
no  independent  freedom;  the  individual  was  a  member  of  a 
corporation,  not  only  of  the  state  and  the  nation,  but  rather 
of  the  narrow  circle  within  which  he  moved.  That  circle  has 
its  fixed  manners  and  usages,  its  rights  and  liberties,  its 
privileges,  its  charter,  but  also  its  perfectly  defined  formation 
within  which  he  has  to  keep  himself.  The  guild,  like  the 
feudal  system,  the  city,  like  every  close  corporation,  in 
which  the  population  of  the  Middle  Ages  were  divided, — all 
had  their  definite  precepts  and  customs ;  whoever  did  not  hold 
to  them  was  suspended  in  air.  The  Jew  had  to  hold  to  that 
which  designated  him  as  Jew  and  made  him  known  as  such, 
which  assigned  him  his  definite  position  as  Jew  in  the  articu- 
lation of  the  whole.  Wanting  to  free  oneself  from  it  was  to 
remove  the  ground  from  under  one's  feet.  Maimonides  feels 
that  condition  quite  correctly  when  he  considers  the  precepts 
as  ordered  for  the  preservation  of  the  world,  as  part  of  the 
proper  social  conformation  and  strengthening  of  the  social 
tie.  The  Middle  Ages  can  not  get  out  of  that  circle;  even  if 
his  mental  culture  rose  to  the  greatest  height,  the  line  of 
limitation,  within  which  the  individual  and  the  circle  to  which 
he  belonged,  remained  fixed  and  impassable.  Thus  Maimon- 
ides was  necessarily  more  interested  in  a  purely  philosophical 
conception  than  in  a  transformation  of  life.     If  that  generally 


Maimonides  351 

offered  barriers  which  the  Middle  Ages  could  not  break 
through,  we  must  also  not  forget  that  Islam  had  become 
fanatical  in  the  time  of  Maimonides  and  did  not  at  all  favor 
free,  independent  action  of  the  individual.  Averrhoes  (Ibn 
Roshd)  was  a  contemporary,  a  little  older  than  Maimonides, 
an  Aristotelian  philosopher  who  represents  the  height  of  that 
tendency  in  Spanish  Islam,  a  philosopher  who  enjoyed  great 
esteem  through  the  entire  Middle  Ages.  Averrhoes,  too,  had  to 
bend  and  submit  to  the  most  customary  conceptions  and 
practices.  Yet  a  few  unguarded,  incautious,  and  very 
innocent  but  for  the  time  bold  expressions  brought  him  under 
suspicion  and  exposed  him  to  great  persecution. 

Thus  Maimonides  actually  attained  the  greatest  height 
which  it  was  possible  to  attain  in  Judaism  at  that  time.  He 
was  a  man  of  the  holiest  and  purest  zeal  for  deeper  knowledge 
of  Judaism  and  for  general,  scientific,  thoroughgoing  culture, 
a  man  who  certainly  paid  regard  to  public  opinion  and  gave 
honor  to  what  had  been  accepted,  without,  however,  per- 
mitting his  fervor  for  truth  and  the  spreading  of  truth  to  be 
dimmed.  He  does  not  misjudge  the  doubts  which  oppose  the 
publication  of  his  religio-philosophical  work,  he  himself  calls 
attention  to  the  considerations  and  the  form  of  presentation 
which  he  thought  necessary,  and  yet  he  knows  that  he  could 
not  avoid  offense.  "  In  short,"  he  says,  "  I  am  so  constituted. 
If  a  thought  presses  me,  and  I  can  present  it  only  in  a  manner 
that  satisfies  and  aids  one  thinker  among  ten  thousand  men, 
while  it  perhaps  appears  insufferable  to  the  great  mass,  I 
boldly  and  openly  pronounce  the  word  which  illuminates  the 
intelligent  one,  even  if  the  blame  of  the  ignorant  crowd  is 
cast  upon  me."  Maimonides  was  a  man  of  thought,  but  at 
the  same  time,  of  the  purest  and  most  serious  intent.  If  pure 
knowledge,  theoretical  culture,  was  the  highest  to  him,  that 
was  yet  in  closest  connection  with  pure  moral  action  and 
ennobling  of  character  as  the  indispensable  condition  for 
mental  elevation.  Without  presumption,  he  is  always  busy 
with  self-examination.  Modesty  and  benevolence  mildly 
shine  through  every  one  of  his  words,  and  in  this  way  even 
his    Talmudic-legal    works— a    few    dogmatic-metaphysical 


352  Judaism  and  Its  History 

severities  excepted — are  full  of  a  gratifying  moral  warmth. 
For  that  he  stood  highly  honored  as  a  man  of  mind  and  noble 
deed  in  his  own  time  and  in  all  later  periods. 

We  have  now  arrived  at  the  summit  of  the  Spanish  de- 
velopment. It  could  not  go  higher.  Even  if  conditions  had 
remained  favorable,  weakening  would  have  followed ;  unfavor- 
able conditions  hastened  the  fall.  Yet  before  we  close  with 
the  highest  development  of  Jewish-Spanish  Arabianism,  let 
it  pass  before  us  in  short  review.  Let  us  imagine  as  present, 
the  three  brilliant  centuries  as  they  passed  before  our  eyes. 
What  magnificent  results  that  period  offers  to  us!  Science 
is  not  only  nurtured,  it  is  enriched  in  every  relation.  Knowl- 
edge of  the  Hebrew  language  rises  into  science  and  attains  a 
degree  which  has  not  been  passed  until  the  last  century. 
Interpretation  and  explanation  of  the  Scripture  enter  deep 
into  its  meaning  and  stimulate  the  greatest  problems.  Phi- 
losophy becomes  common  property,  and  though  it  is  not 
creative,  it  is  yet  ennobling  and  enlightening.  The  Jews  did 
not  walk  alongside,  they  stand  in  the  front  ranks  of  the  mental 
movement.  Gabirol  is  one  of  the  few  who  arise  as  genuine 
masters  of  philosophy  in  Spain,  Maimonides  is  the  contem- 
porary of  Averrhoes,  who  are  not  mutually  dependent,  but 
only  at  later  age  the  labors  of  either  become  known  to  the 
other.  Both  are  the  rulers  on  the  throne  of  philosophy 
through  the  entire  Middle  Ages.  The  Jews  remain  the  lasting 
intermediaries  in  all  sciences,  for  the  Arabian  writings  would 
have  perished  completely  and  remained  without  influence  for 
later  times  if  they  had  not  been  saved  for  us  in  Hebrew 
translations,  because  they  would  have  remained  unknown  in 
Arabic  and  many  of  the  originals  were  completely  lost.  We 
owe  it  only  to  the  zeal  of  the  Jews  that  they  exist  yet  to-day 
as  monuments  of  a  time  of  fine  culture.  Islam  rendered 
great  service  to  Judaism  by  leaving  to  it  room;  it  did  not  go 
in  advance  of  it  in  everything  and  could  not  offer  everything 
to  it,  but  it  gave  it  room  for  the  development  of  its  powers. 
And  thus  we  look  back  upon  that  illustrious  time  as  a 
brilliant  period  of  Judaism.  We  shall  honor  that  Spanish- 
Arabian  development  of  Judaism.     It  produced  men  who 


Maimonides  353 

have  remained  bright  stars  at  all  times.  On  Aben  Esra, 
Spinoza  grew  up.  Maimonides  was  the  teacher  of  the  whole 
Middle  Ages,  and  every  enlightened  mind  that  arose  later, 
drew  eagerly  from  him,  found  stimulation  in  him,  and  gladly 
acknowledged  himself  his  pupil. 


XI. 

In  Germany  and  France. 

From  wide,  high-vaulted  halls,  permitting  the  freest  move- 
ment of  the  mind,  I  now  lead  you  into  low,  narrow  chambers, 
affording  very  limited  distance  to  the  view.  The  position  which 
the  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages  occupied  toward  culture  and  the 
use  of  reason  in  general,  was  a  quite  different  one  from  that 
which  Islam  held.  Islam  left  reason  wide,  free  room,  did  not 
prescribe  the  results  of  its  investigation  and  made  no  demands 
contradictory  to  its  natural  impulses  and  tendency.  Its  deepest 
principle,  the  unity  and  omnipotence  of  God,  carried  no  op- 
position against  the  demand  of  reasonable  thought,  and  con- 
sequently in  its  best  days  it  always  showed  itself  favorable  to 
the  cultivation  of  science  and  philosophy.  It  was  different 
with  the  Church  of  the  Middle  Ages.  From  the  beginning, 
that  Church  had  attempted  to  unite  opposite  principles  within 
itself  and  to  make  such  union  the  basis  upon  which  it  sought  to 
erect  the  entire  superstructure  of  faith.  Having  thus  planted 
within  its  own  vitals  an  irritating  contradiction,  the  irritation 
became  more  acute  with  the  awakening  of  study  so  that  every 
attempt  to  heal  the  wound,  caused  it  to  gape  more  widely.  It 
had  put  up,  before  reason,  certain  results  which  were  to  be 
esteemed  as  inviolable  and  unassailable  and  which  yet  could  not 
be  comprehended  by  it,  and  were  in  fact  in  complete  opposi- 
tion to  reason.  Thus  in  the  development  of  the  Church,  the 
repugnance  toward  the  use  of  reason  and  all  science  had  to 
be  nourished  more  and  more.  In  that  mental  atmosphere  as 
it  was  wafted  out  from  the  Church,  mental  health  within 
Judaism  could  not  prosper  as  we  have  seen  it  appear  so  finely 
in  the  realms  of  Islam.  The  flower  of  true  culture,  deeper 
entrance  into  the  meaning  of  Scripture  and  into  the  prin- 
ciples of  Judaism  as  well  as  progress  in  science  could  not  be 
maintained  as  among  the  Spanish  Jews. 


Islam  and  Judaism  355 

The  position  of  the  Church  toward  Judaism  and  Jews 
was  also  a  wholly  different  one  from  that  of  Islam.  This 
permitted  Judaism  to  walk  by  its  side,  and  did  not  think  it 
necessary  to  undertake  a  fight  against  it.  Relying  upon  its 
power,  it  looked  proudly  down  upon  it;  its  superior  domina- 
tion was  sufficient  warrant  for  its  truth.  It  formed  no  con- 
trast to  Judaism.  The  unity  and  omnipotence  of  God,  upon 
which  it  based  its  whole  system  of  faith,  its  pure  spirituality, 
so  that  divinity  might  not  be  represented  in  image  or  picture, 
the  moslem  heard  accentuated  with  equal  decision  by  Judaism 
and  he  felt  in  that  a  kindred  spirit.  On  the  whole,  there  was 
a  certain  trait  of  kinship  between  Islam  and  Judaism;  both 
carried  the  unmistakable  imprint  of  their  Oriental  origin, 
even  the  languages  being  closely  related.  Thus  they  went 
side  by  side,  even  if  not  in  perfect  harmony,  yet  not  repelled 
by  each  other,  but  on  the  contrary  tied  together  by  similar 
traits.  Even  in  the  customs  and  precepts  of  practical  life, 
there  was  a  certain  agreement.  For  Islam  has  taken  over 
from  Judaism  many  legalities  which  he  observed  as  seriously 
as  Judaism  and  its  adherents.  The  moslem  practised  cir- 
cumcision, the  use  of  pork  was  prohibited  to  him,  and  in  Islam 
many  other  things  are  found  which  it  has  borrowed  from 
Judaism  and  has  in  common  with  it.  They  could  remain 
quietly  side  by  side  without  troubling  about  each  other,  so 
much  the  more  as  each  had  its  own  source  and  basis  which 
the  other  left  untouched.  The  moslem  had  his  koran,  which 
he  esteemed  as  the  only  infallible  authority.  He  was  per- 
fectly satisfied  with  it,  without  going  back  to  its  source,  the 
Hebrew  bible.  He  ignored  that,  and  since  it  remained  strange 
to  him  and  he  did  not  understand  it,  he  left  its  treatment  to 
the  Jews.  These,  on  their  side,  were  wholly  taken  up  with 
the  bible,  either  knew  very  little  of  the  koran  or  paid  no 
attention  at  all  to  it.  Thus,  each  had  its  own  particular 
ground. 

The  position  of  the  Church  toward  Judaism  and  the  Jews 
was  quite  different.  The  contrast  between  them  both  could 
not  be  covered  up;  it  came  always  clearly  forward.  To  the 
powerful  Church,  it  was  a  thorn  in  the  flesh,  that  Judaism 


356  Judaism  and  Its  History 

kept  up  at  all;  its  very  existence  appeared  unjustifiable  to  it; 
like  a  mockery,  every  Jew  was  a  walking  protest  against  its 
truth.  If  the  Jew  emphatically  asserted  the  indivisible  unity 
of  God,  it  was  a  wicked  attack  upon  the  trinity;  his  abstention 
from  every  corporeal  presentation  of  God  appeared  a  denial 
of  the  human  incarnation  of  God.  The  belief  that  by  proper 
acting,  even  after  having  sinned,  he  might  by  repentance 
regain  God's  favor  and  accordingly  could  obtain  forgiveness 
by  his  own  force,  was  negation  of  original  sin  and  necessity 
of  redemption.  His  hope  of  a  better  time,  on  the  coming  of 
the  Messianic  Kingdom,  was  a  blasphemous  assertion  that 
the  redeemer  had  not  yet  appeared.  Thus  the  entire  con- 
tents and  the  whole  appearance  of  Judaism,  even  if  it  kept 
perfectly  still,  was  an  eloquent  contradiction  of  Christianity. 
At  the  same  time,  they  stood  on  the  same  original  ground, 
and  the  Church  could  not  tolerate  the  idea  that  Judaism 
should  claim  that  ground  as  its  own.  They  both  stood  on 
the  bible.  The  Church  asserted  it  was  its  property.  Its 
doctrine  was  contained  in  it  and  whoever  deviated  from  that 
was  a  heretic,  an  enemy  of  the  Church,  and  a  perverter  of 
Scripture.  And  since  Judaism  did  so  with  that  certainty 
which  the  exact  knowledge  of  the  contents  of  the  bible  and  the 
superiority  which  the  familiarity  with  the  language  of  the 
original  gave  it,  the  hatred  was  inextinguishable  and  had  to 
be  so,  according  to  the  manner  of  that  time.  The  Israel  of 
which  the  bible  speaks,  the  Church  asserted,  was  the  Church 
itself,  although  its  confessors  were  not  bodily  descended  from 
Israel,  yet  all  promises  were  given  to  it.  If  the  Jews  asserted 
the  contrary,  it  was  an  invasion  of  the  sacred  rights  of  the 
Church,  a  wicked  attempt  to  cut  the  nerve  of  the  Church. 
The  interpretation  of  the  bible  was,  accordingly,  a  field  of 
constantly  waging  battle  on  which  they  moved.  What  did 
Islam  care  how  any  verse  in  the  bible  was  explained?  The 
Church  was  greatly  interested:  everywhere,  indications  of 
Jesus  should  be  found,  everywhere  the  doctrines  of  the 
Church  should  be  expressed  or  typically  indicated. 

In  this  way  the  position  of  Judaism  and  the  Jews  within 
the  territory  of  the  Church  was  necessarily  a  far  more  un- 


First  Period  of  the  Middle  Ages  357 

favorable  one  than  within  the  realms  of  Islam.  Of  course, 
the  three  centuries  which  we  have  seen  passing  before  us  as 
the  time  of  fine,  rich  culture  of  Jewish-Arabian-Spanish 
civilization,  namely  from  the  beginning  of  the  tenth  to  the 
end  of  the  twelfth  century,  those  three  centuries  form  the 
advance  period  of  the  real  degeneracy  of  the  Middle  Ages. 
In  that  time  the  medieval  stagnation  within  the  Church  itself, 
as  well  as  among  the  Jews,  had  not  reached  its  full  perversity. 
At  that  time  there  was  yet  a  certain  freshness  of  nature  in 
the  nations  that  then  were  yet  novices  in  Christianity.  The 
nations  of  Western  Europe  had  then  been  converted  to  Chris- 
tianity, but  were  still  natural,  still  possessing  plain,  fresh, 
original  sentiment,  not  yet  artificial  in  thinking  and  feeling, 
not  yet  scholastically  entangled.  Of  sound,  even  if  uncul- 
tured sense,  the  population  was  not  yet  filled  with  hatred  of 
the  Jews  as  it  was  in  later  centuries  of  the  Middle  Ages.  It 
is  true,  persecutions,  fanatical  ebullitions,  of  course  through 
artificial  spurring,  took  place  in  those  centuries,  as  the 
crusades  belong  to  them  too.  But  that  was  more  a  wild  out- 
burst of  momentary  passion,  a  running  over  of  brute  force, 
not  the  uninterrupted  refinement  of  petty  cruelty  which 
pricked  with  needle  points  into  the  healthy  and  then  into  the 
sore  flesh  and  could  never  cease  to  spitefully  practice  its 
petty  malicious  tortures.  That  entire  time  shows  yet  a 
sound  energy,  the  leading  persons  in  the  state  as  well  as  in 
the  Church  show  aptitude,  freshness,  and  a  forceful  endeavor 
which  was  stimulating,  even  if  science  in  the  true  and  full 
sense  of  the  word,  could  not  prosper  within  that  circle. 

The  Jews  had  come  in  early  times  already  into  Western 
Europe.  On  the  banks  of  the  Rhine,  in  the  Vosges  moun- 
tains, in  Germany,  in  France,  we  meet  them  in  early  centuries, 
we  find  them  at  the  courts,  as  members  of  embassies,  as 
physicians.  Their  position  in  general  was,  on  the  whole,  that 
of  a  well-liked,  often  influential  class.  The  suspicious  tension 
between  them  and  the  people  did  not  yet  exist.  Of  course, 
we  hear  nothing  of  a  special  culture  among  them,  and  just  as 
little  of  Talmudic  learning.  They  lived  in  a  certain  state  of 
nature  like  the  people  in  whose  midst  they  abode;  enough 


358  Judaism  and  Its  History 

that  they  were  firm  and  constant  in  their  faith.  Zealous 
princes  of  the  Church  made  violent  opposition  to  them,  like 
Agobard  of  Lyon  in  the  ninth  century,  but  his  voice  dies  away 
and  has  no  effect  on  the  position  of  the  Jews.  An  emperor 
Charles  is  said  to  have  brought  along  a  learned  Jewish  family 
from  Lucca  in  Italy,  to  Germany,  and  some  wanted  to  trace 
from  them  the  Talmudic  learning  which  later  spread  in  those 
countries.  But  such  fugitive  notice  is  not  confirmed  by  the 
historic  course,  at  least,  as  to  any  influence  upon  learning. 

There  were  very  old,  important  congregations,  but  before 
the  tenth  century  we  learn  even  within  them,  nothing  of  any 
particular  mental  movement.  The  congregations  at  Speyer, 
Worms  and  Mainz  are  especially  named  to  us  as  old,  firmly 
organized  communities,  and  they  soon  come  into  the  fore- 
ground by  a  rich  number  of  learned  men  in  their  midst.  But 
even  in  them  there  are  no  traces  of  learning  before  the  period 
which  we  are  now  considering.  With  the  tenth  century,  all 
at  once  Talmudic  learning  meets  us  quite  independently  and 
fertile.  Where  did  it  come  from?  Everything  points  to  the 
fact  that  Talmudic  learning  came  directly  from  the  Gaons  in 
Babylonia  to  Germany  and  France.  If  the  distance  seems 
to  you  too  great  under  the  difficulties  of  communication  at 
that  time,  such  really  wonderful  action  is  repeated  through 
the  entire  Middle  Ages  that,  in  spite  of  the  great  impediments 
opposed  to  communication,  a  lively  intercourse  is  going  on 
between  the  Jews  of  the  most  distant  countries,  and  that  an 
exchange  of  learned  letters  is  carried  on  from  Occident  to 
Orient,  from  Spain  to  Bohemia,  from  France  to  Bagdad. 
This  shows  us  how  a  serious  mental  striving  knows  how  to 
overcome  all  barriers  of  space.  Enough!  In  France  at  first 
a  man  appears  who  is  named  as  propagator  of  Talmudic 
learning,  but  of  whom  we  know  nothing  more  than  that  he 
had  a  great  pupil  whom  we  shall  now  consider.  Rabbi 
Leontin  is  named  to  us  as  teacher  of  Gershom  Ben  Jehuda. 
The  name  given  to  the  latter,  "Light  of  the  Exile,"  announces 
sufficiently  the  regard  he  enjoyed  and  the  mighty  influence 
he  exerted. 

Gershom,  who  flourished  at  the  end  of  the  tenth  and  the 


Gershom  359 

beginning  of  the  eleventh  century  and  who,  it  seems,  taught 
principally  in  Mainz,  was  a  comprehensive  Talmudic  scholar. 
The  whole,  widely  branching  field  lay  perfectly  open  before 
him.  He  cultivated  it,  made  various  commentaries  on 
Talmudic  tracts,  was  occupied  in  like  manner  with  the  bible 
down  in  its  detail,  and  we  learn  to  know  in  him,  even  though 
not  much  of  his  writing  remains,  the  sober,  clear,  intelligent 
mind,  who  does  not  rise  boldly,  does  not  dive  speculatively 
nor  lose  himself  in  fantastic  dreaming,  does  not  bring  strange 
presumptions  to  his  investigations,  goes  objectively  at  what 
is  before  him  and  apprehends  that  with  simple,  sound  sense, 
keeping  close  to  the  thought  and  expression.  We  recognize 
also  by  him,  how  in  healthy  times,  even  without  higher 
culture,  the  general  custom  of  the  country  and  its  pecularity 
exercise  an  important  influence  upon  religious  views.  Gershom 
was  a  scholar  with  European  sentiment,  with  German  views, 
and  formulates  them  in  important  decisions  when  they  deviate 
from  the  Oriental  view. 

Judaism,  according  to  its  deepest  base,  knows  well  how  to 
recognize  the  dignity  of  woman.  It,  therefore,  according  to 
its  character,  demands  marriage  of  one  man  to  one  wife.  It 
does  not  favor  polygamy,  even  if  it  does  not  prohibit  it 
straightout.  The  entire  history  bears  witness  to  that — the 
history  of  the  bible  and  of  the  Talmud — so  that  all  examples 
of  a  different  kind  are  to  be  considered  exceptions,  tolerated 
only,  while  the  sacred  custom  demands  monogamy,  without 
being  fixed  as  law.  Even  under  Islam,  which  in  that  point 
allows  the  Oriental  custom  in  full  extent,  Judaism  held  fast 
to  its  basic  character,  and  we  meet  among  the  Jewish-Spanish 
poets,  poetical  products  which  bear  testimony  to  the  sincerity 
between  husband  and  wife,  bearing  a  wholly  different  char- 
acter from  the  Arabic  erotic  poetry.  A  peculiar  Jewish  trait, 
for  instance,  is  an  entire  class  of  poetry  which,  quite  strange 
to  the  Arabians,  is  made  only  by  Jews,  as  we  have  some 
excellent  ones  by  Juda  Ha-Levi,  namely,  wedding  songs, 
which  express  the  sacredness  of  marriage  and  the  cordiality 
of  the  relation  between  husband  and  wife  full  of  deep  senti- 
ment.   Thus  the  fixed  custom,  which  is  mightier  than  law, 


360  Judaism  and  Its  History 

has  sanctified  that  relation.  If  the  custom  was  not  shaped 
into  law  so  that  exceptions,  even  though  occurring  rarely  and 
with  general  disapproval,  could  not  be  proscribed,  it  was 
because  the  conditions  did  not  force  toward  it  and  the  author- 
ities did  not  think  themselves  justified  in  fixing  a  law  for 
which  there  was  no  support  in  the  letter  of  the  Scripture. 
It  was  different  in  Western  Europe.  There  also,  outside  of 
Judaism,  monogamy  was  the  general  custom;  a  deviation  from 
it,  even  if  it  happened  only  seldom,  must  violate  the  popular 
sentiment.  Accordingly,  Gershom,  in  connection  with  learned 
contemporaries,  met  in  a  synod,  to  sanction  the  custom  as 
law  from  now  on,  and  polygamy  was  put  under  the  ban. 
Thus  we  owe  to  this  convention  of  rabbis  the  legal  fixing  of 
a  principle  which  has  root  in  Judaism  and  grew  out  of  it 
naturally,  but  which  yet  until  then  had  not  found  legal 
authority  and  recognition.  We  owe  it  to  the  freshness  of 
those  men  who  understood  the  needs  of  their  country  and  had 
no  hesitation  in  giving  them  expression.  A  later,  narrow- 
minded  orthodoxy  would  have  found  imitation  of  foreign 
custom  in  such  action,  and  would  have  wrapped  itself  into 
sickly  fear,  abusing  the  name  of  piety,  to  throw  blame  upon 
the  preceding  ages  by  such  an  innovation,  if  something  was 
put  under  the  ban,  that  had  been  tolerated  before.  Of  such 
narrowmindedness  or  refined  pietism,  Gershom  had  no  idea. 
A  like  narrow  liberalism  would  in  that  well-timed  regulation 
have  feared  the  hierarchical  interference  by  a  synod  of  rabbis. 
That  healthy,  naive  time  did  not  know  such  weakly  fears. 
In  close  connection  with  that  view  are  yet  other  decisions 
of  Gershom.  One  of  them  relates  to  divorce.  According  to 
the  Oriental  view,  which  by  the  way  is  shared  by  all  Antiquity, 
divorce  is  entirely  in  the  power  of  the  husband.  Already  the 
prophet  Malachi  designates  the  putting  away  of  the  wife  as 
an  action  hated  by  God,  and  Judaism  as  it  was  shaped  about 
the  beginning  of  the  second  Temple  under  the  rule  of  the 
Sadducees  and  the  old  custom,  made  divorce  more  difficult; 
it  was  to  be  permitted  only  in  case  of  adultery  committed 
by  the  wife.  By  that,  the  power  of  the  husband  was  limited, 
but  the  remedy  ending  marital  discord  was  also  withdrawn. 


Gershom.  Divorce  361 

Phariseeism  In  its  more  consistent  development,  as  repre- 
sented by  Hillel  and  Akiba,  made  divorce  more  easy  and  again 
put  it  completely  at  the  pleasure  of  the  husband.  But  even 
then  the  living  impulse  of  Judaism  was  better  and  mightier 
than  the  law.  Divorces  did  not  increase  in  number  and  im- 
properly as  some  had  expected.  If  in  general,  marriages 
were  cordial  and  peaceable,  many  difficulties  in  married  life 
were  patiently  borne,  too;  and  the  teachers  give  us  fine 
examples  how  by  mildness  and  quiet  resignation,  even  the 
fate  of  being  tied  to  a  quarrelsome  wife  may  be  borne.  It  is 
an  old  saying:  "Even  the  altar  sheds  tears  at  him  that  puts 
his  wife  away."  Yet,  according  to  law,  the  matter  was  always 
only  in  the  hands  of  the  husband.  The  wife  was  provided 
for  according  to  his  financial  condition;  the  right  was  even 
granted  her,  of  which  the  bible  contains  nothing,  to  demand 
divorce  under  certain  circumstances  and  to  obtain  it  by 
judicial  proceeding.  But  anyhow  there  remained  to  the 
husband  the  unlimited  power  to  put  away  his  wife,  and  the 
inclination  to  make  use  of  such  legal  right  even  for  small  cause 
would  now — Gershom  felt  that  very  well — gain  fresh  strength 
if  he  lost  the  possibility  of  marrying  a  second  wife  besides  the 
one  looked  upon  with  disfavor.  Well  considering  the  wife's 
position  in  his  country  as  deviating  from  that  in  the  Orient, 
Gershom  ordained  that  divorce  cannot  take  place  without  the 
consent  of  the  wife.  A  very  important  transformation  of  the 
legal  ordinances. 

Yet,  a  similar  case  expresses  his  recognition  of  the  greater 
independence  of  the  wife.  According  to  biblical  order,  at  the 
death  of  a  childless  man,  his  wife  shall  be  married  by  the 
brother,  the  leviratical  m^arriage  shall  take  place.  Only  if  the 
brother-in-law  refuses  the  marriage,  the  liberation  of  the  wife 
from  her  obligation  to  him  is  effected  by  a  judicial  proceeding 
according  to  a  fixed  form.  Accordingly,  the  leviratical 
marriage  was  the  rule;  its  refusal  by  the  brother-in-law  was 
considered  a  blamable  action  and  a  disgracing  of  the  widow, 
and  in  its  stead  the  so-called  Chalizah  took  place.  In  Tal- 
mudical  times  already,  that  relation  between  leviratical 
marriage  and  its  neglect  with  subsequent  Chalizah  was  no 


362  Judaism  and  Its  History 

longer  understood  in  that  way.  Many  voices  asserted 
Chalizah  to  be  preferable  to  marriage  of  the  brother's  widow; 
that  this  should  be  omitted  and  the  Chalizah  be  performed 
under  all  circumstances.  Yet  the  matter  was  not  settled  and 
under  Islam  the  opinion  again  prevailed  which  had  the  letter 
of  the  bible  and  the  most  important  Talmudical  teachers  on 
its  side,  that  the  leviratical  marriage  held  the  first  place,  while 
Chalizah  was  but  a  makeshift.  Here,  too,  Gershom  acted  in 
conjunction  with  his  colleagues,  in  correspondence  with  the 
character  of  his  time  and  country  and  demanded  that  Chalizah 
should  take  place  under  all  circumstances  and  the  leviratical 
marriage  should  cease.  Those  are  expressions  of  a  mind, 
bearing  witness  to  his  complete  independence  and  a  thorough 
entrance  into  his  time  and  its  view.  By  those  settlements, 
Gershom  towers  far  above  that  rigid  legalism  which  covers 
itself  with  the  brazen  shield  of  the  inviolable  law  against 
many  a  remainder  of  antiquated  views,  which  deafens  its  ear 
against  the  lamentations  of  the  broken  heart  of  a  woman  and 
mocks  its  desiccation  without  sympathy  with  such  suffering 
caused  by  the  rigors  of  an  antiquated  law  as  weak  senti- 
mentality. 

On  the  whole,  Gershom's  tendency  was  a  mild,  natural, 
healthy  one.  Gershom  had  to  make  a  sad  experience.  His 
son  abandoned  Judaism  and  joined  the  Church.  When  the 
young  man  died,  Gershom  kept  mourning  double  time, 
fourteen  days  instead  of  the  prescribed  seven.  As  long  as 
his  son  was  alive,  he  thought  that  he  would  return  to  his 
father.  That  hope  was  now  gone;  now  he  must  fear  that  his 
son  was  lost  to  him  in  the  next  world  too,  and  his  mourning 
was  doubled.  A  later  stunted  orthodoxy  will  not  permit  to 
a  parent's  heart  that  expression  of  his  sorrow;  it  demands 
that  no  mourning  be  done  or  worn  for  such  a  son,  for  his 
passing  away  ought  to  make  no  difference. 

Of  other  learned  contemporaries  in  France  and  Germany, 
little  information  has  come  down  to  us.  Gershom's  brother 
Machir  is  named  and  his  attempt  at  a  dictionary,  his  "Alpha- 
bet," is  mentioned.  Joseph  Tob-Elem  (Bonfils)  at  Limoges 
seems  likewise  to  belong  to  that  period,  a  man  of  wide  Tal- 


Rashi  363* 

mudical  knowledge,  who  earned  particular  merit  by  spreading 
the  products  of  Jewish  literature  brought  over  from  the 
Orient.  At  any  rate,  Gershom's  light  outshines  them  all, 
and  numerous  pupils  spread  his  fame  everywhere  as  they 
make  the  products  of  his  learning  common  property.  The 
school  at  Worms  is  especially  praised,  where  Jacob  Ben  Jakar, 
Isaac  Ben  Jehudah,  and  several  others  appear  as  excellent 
scholars  of  that  time,  although  they  have  left  no  writings, 
they  fitted  out  a  pupil  who  has  exercised  an  influence  the 
more  lasting  upon  the  entire  Judaism  of  the  Middle  Ages,  who 
does  not  rise  above  the  character  of  the  Jews  in  the  Christian 
countries  of  the  Middle  Ages,  but  is  still  an  appearance  as 
amiable  as  he  is  important.  Solomon  Ben  Isaac  of  Troyes 
in  the  Champagne,  who  falls  into  the  second  half  of  the 
eleventh  century,  from  about  1040  to  1105,  generally  called 
Rashi  after  the  initial  letters  of  his  name,  was,  like  Gershom, 
a  man  of  sober,  clear  sense,  at  home  in  his  field  and  dominating 
it,  of  amiable  modesty.  His  own  personality  almost  com- 
pletely recedes  behind  the  objects  which  he  treats.  Solomon 
Ben  Isaac  wrote  a  commentary  to  the  entire  Talmud,  the 
whole  bible,  and  a  part  of  the  Midrash.  He  composed  also 
penitential  hymns,  which,  like  all  penitential  hymns  and 
similar  poems  of  the  French-German  Paitanim  (liturgical 
poets)  have  no  other  value  than  that  they  furnish  a  sad 
illustration  of  the  conditions  then  existing.  He  carried  on 
an  extensive,  learned  correspondence,  inquiries  being  ad- 
dressed to  him  from  all  directions.  In  his  commentaries,  the 
clear  view  of  the  commentator  is  recognized,  who  feels  the 
least  difficulty  which  might  arise  in  the  passage  for  a  reader 
not  so  well  versed.  With  short  words,  keeping  close  to  the 
text,  he  knows  how  to  remove  the  difficulty  and  clear  up  the 
darkness.  He  keeps  off  every  digression  and  avoids  every 
discussion  not  strictly  belonging  to  the  subject.  He  wants  to 
be  commentator  only,  and  he  is  that  completely.  Of  course 
he  appears  to  us  as  such,  first  in  his  commentary  of  the 
Talmud.  There  he  is  perfectly  on  his  home  soil  and  moves 
in  his  manner  of  view  and  thought.  In  his  commentary  of 
the  bible,  his  endeavor  is  similar,  but  here  the  mighty  current 


364  Judaism  and  Its  History 

of  the  Talmudical  way  of  explanation,  legends  and  far-fetched 
interpretations  have  overpowered  him  to  such  an  extent  that 
he  thinks  himself  obliged  to  give  their  results  briefly,  so  that 
by  such  proceeding  the  natural  sense  and  meaning  is  obscured. 
He  feels  that  himself,  and  joins  to  the  artificial  Talmudical 
and  Midrashic  interpretations  his  own  simple  explanation 
and  seeks,  as  far  as  it  is  possible  for  him  from  his  standpoint, 
to  investigate  the  meaning  of  the  passage  of  the  Scripture 
and  to  explain  the  construction  by  the  grammatical  aids  at 
his  command.  Of  course,  as  far  as  they  are  at  his  command, 
for  the  French  school  of  that  time  had  not  got  beyond  the 
degree  reached  by  Menahem  Ben  Saruk  and  Dunash  Ben 
Librat,  whose  works,  because  written  in  Hebrew,  were  acces- 
sible to  the  French  scholars,  while  the  later  works,  written 
in  Arabic,  remained  unknown  to  them.  Thus  they  stayed 
limited  to  the  childhood  of  linguistical  knowledge  and  were 
not  able  to  penetrate  to  the  depth  of  the  simple  meaning. 
As  stated,  Rashi  was  dependent  upon  the  whole  interpretation 
as  delivered  to  his  hands  by  the  old  Talmudical  writings,  so 
that  his  explanation  often  leads  more  away  from  the  simple 
meaning  than  up  to  it.  Under  the  conditions  and  influences 
of  that  time,  the  appearance  of  a  man  can  not  surprise  us, 
who  on  the  one  side  never  denies  clear,  undimmed  view  and 
sound,  sober  sense,  and  who  yet,  on  the  other  side,  quite 
harmlessly  agrees  with  all  legends  and  miraculous  stories, 
accepting  them  as  perfectly  valid  and  indisputable  as  if  there 
were  nothing  strange  in  them.  Such  is  Rashi,  and  such  is 
his  School. 

Among  his  contemporaries  and  successors,  of  course,  there 
were  men  who  ventured  upon  simple  explanation  of  the 
Scriptures  with  far  more  decided  earnestness  and  conscious- 
ness. One  of  Rashi 's  contemporaries  who  later,  because  the 
age  had  no  longer  an  organ  for  his  sober  conception  of  the 
bible,  received  but  little  attention,  was  Menahem  Ben  Chelbo, 
whom  we  may  designate  from  the  quotations  of  his  pupils 
as  the  father  of  a  reasonable  exegesis  in  France.  A  nephew 
of  his,  and  probably  grown  up  under  his  tutorship,  was 
Joseph  Ben  Simon  Kara.    A  later  dark  age  has  almost  buried 


Kara.  Rashbam  365 

him,  too,  under  its  rubbish,  until  he  was  again  discovered  in 
our  days.  Kara  had  a  bright  mind,  was  a  sober  expounder 
of  Scripture  who  came  close  to  critical  results  by  his  clear 
way  of  looking  at  things,  although  he  was  without  philosophic 
culture  and  scientific  guidance.  A  grandson  of  Rashi,  as 
famous  as  Talmudist  as  he  was  meritorious  as  expounder  of 
Scripture,  Samuel  Ben  Meir,  known  by  the  appellation  of 
Rashbam,  was  a  man  of  very  fine  linguistic  sense  and  happy 
mode  of  interpretation.  Yet  he  lacked  his  grandfather's  skill 
in  expression,  so  that  he  becomes  too  prolix  at  times  and  at 
other  times  too  brief  and  dark.  If  his  clumsy  way  of  expres- 
sion is  overcome,  a  treasure  of  sound  interpretation  is  revealed 
which  may  be  used  even  to-day  in  many  directions.  Rash- 
bam is  fully  conscious  of  the  opposition  in  which  the  natural 
manner  of  interpretation  stands  to  the  Talmudic  one.  He 
himself  tells  us  how  he  had  many  discussions  with  his  grand- 
father and  how  that  famous  old  man  had  with  his  admirable 
modesty  admitted  to  the  mere  youth  that  if  time  were  granted 
him,  he  would  completely  rewrite  his  biblical  commentaries 
and  shape  them  more  according  to  the  simple  conception. 
Samuel  Ben  Meir  handles  that  manner  with  all  decision  and 
there  is  no  escape  from  his  view  for  critical  problems  which 
he  solves  with  fine,  tracing  tact. 

Yet  the  same  man  appears  to  us  again  as  expounder  of  the 
Talmud,  diving  into  the  most  isolated  and  petty  discussions, 
perfectly  naive  in  his  views,  and  we  scarcely  comprehend  how 
the  clear  soberness  in  his  biblical  works  can  be  made  to  agree 
with  his  proceeding  in  those  upon  the  Talmud,  how  it  is 
possible  that  in  the  latter  he  goes  into  the  queerest  things 
without  hesitation.  The  Spaniards  had  kept  themselves 
either  on  the  parry  against  such  matters  or  were  satisfied  to 
ignore  them.  But  those  clear  Frenchmen  walk  into  them 
without  distrust.  One  example  may  suffice,  and  we  may  as 
well  quote  it  here  as  the  same  passage  will  come  up  again  in 
the  course  of  our  historical  review. 

The  Talmudic  legend  to  which  we  refer,  belongs  perhaps 
to  the  queerest,  even  if  similar  ones  occur.  Of  course,  it  is 
not  characteristic  of  the  whole  Talmud.    Legends  are,  as 


366  Judaism  and  Its  History 

already  mentioned,  children  of  the  peopIe*s  poetry,  fabulous 
presentations,  of  which  one  hardly  knows  how  the  childish 
mind  conceives  them,  whether  simply  as  a  merry  plaything  or 
if  it  lays  claim  to  a  serious  belief  in  them.  The  legend  runs 
thus:  *' Rabbi  Banaa  marked  the  grave  caves,  and  came  to 
the  one  in  which  Abraham  and  Sarah  are  entombed.  Elieser, 
Abraham's  servant,  stood  before  it,  and  replied  to  the  question 
of  Rabbi  Banaa  whether  he  might  go  in,  that  Sarah  and 
Abraham  were  in  private,  but  he  would  ask.  He  returned 
with  the  answer  to  enter,  because  in  that  world  no  sensuality 
exists."  The  Spanish  scholars  passed  that  legend,  like  all 
similar  ones,  in  silence;  they  avoided  it.  The  great  con- 
temporary, Isaac  Alfasi,  had  not  admitted  it  into  his  work. 
And  when  asked  how  it  should  be  taken,  he  said  that  it  might 
have  been  a  dream  of  Rabbi  Banaa's.  Samuel  Ben  Meir 
expounds  the  tract  in  which  that  passage  occurs.  He  has  not 
the  least  doubt  about  the  truth  of  the  story,  he  makes  only 
isolated  remarks:  "Only  to  a  man  like  Rabbi  Banaa,  who 
was  so  devout  and  learned,  it  might  have  been  conceded  to 
enter  the  grave  caves  of  the  blessed ;  also,  Elieser,  Abraham's 
servant,  belongs  to  the  seven  persons  who  entered  Paradise 
alive  and  had  an  eternal  life;  and  thus  he  is  Abraham's 
servant  in  that  world  as  he  had  been  in  this  one."  The 
Tosaphists  (makers  of  additions),  as  the  later  teachers  are 
called,  who  proceeded  from  the  School  of  Rashi  and  others, 
have  another  question  to  join  to  the  story;  they  say,  "Rabbi 
Banaa  probably  marked  the  grave  caves  only  to  designate  the 
places  where  there  were  bones  of  the  dead  which  have  to  be 
considered  unclean.  But  as  Abraham  and  Adam,  to  whose 
grave  Rabbi  Banaa  comes  also,  had  lived  before  the  revelation 
on  Sinai,  and  the  law  about  uncleanness  had  its  origin  only 
then,  it  could  not  apply  to  those  patriarchs.  And  then  they 
grope  for  a  solution  of  that  difficulty. 

Jacob,  surnamed  Tham,  the  brother  of  Samuel,  also  was  a 
man  of  great  literary  activity,  famous  on  account  of  his  great 
Talmudic  learning  and  ingenuity,  and  he  was  not  without 
sympathy  for  other  scientific  knowledge.  A  few  later  Spanish 
grammatical  works  had  reached  him  in  translations.     He  had 


TOSAPHISTS  367 

a  short,  personal  intercourse  with  Aben  Esra,  wrote  a  recon- 
ciliation between  Menahem  and  Dunash,  in  which,  in  the 
manner  of  that  time,  he  took  the  side  of  the  older  Menahem, 
and  is  on  the  other  side  out-and-out  the  beginner  of  that 
method  which,  grasping  the  particular,  esteems  the  discus- 
sions higher  than  the  result  and  raises  the  legends  above  their 
basic  idea.  From  those  men,  a  school  arises,  called  the 
Tosaphists,  which  enters  with  a  great  expenditure  of  ingenu- 
ity into  all  particulars  of  dialectics,  discovers  contradiction 
and  attempts  to  reconcile  them,  without  caring  for  the  result 
but  simply  to  execute  a  maneuver  of  ingenuity  and  mental 
activity.  We  must  not  pass  over  one  of  Jacob  Tham's 
pupils  who  deserves  to  be  assigned  a  very  important  position 
as  a  simple  expositor  of  Scripture.  I  mean  Joseph  Behor 
Shor  who,  in  the  ways  of  Samuel  Ben  Meir,  furnishes  a  very 
meritorious  work  in  his  commentary  of  the  Pentateuch,  a 
work  which  the  centuries  had  also  long  buried,  because  they 
did  not  know  how  to  estimate  its  value,  until  it  was  again  dug 
up  in  our  times.  We  meet  yet  industrious  scholars  with  very 
useful  works.  Thus,  Tohia  Ben  Elieser  at  Mainz,  plainly  after 
a  residence  for  a  long  time  in  the  Orient,  puts  together  a 
Talmudical  collection  to  the  Pentateuch ;  and  similar  but  more 
comprehensive,  Simon  DarshaUj  to  whom,  on  the  title-page 
of  his  repeatedly  printed  work,  "Yalkut,"  Frankfort  on  the 
Main  is  assigned  as  birthplace,  for  which  I  would  not  under- 
take a  guarantee.  If  those  and  men  like  them  do  not  repre- 
sent an  independent  tendency,  if  they  do  not  work  with 
creative  and  stimulating  effect,  they  are  yet  worth  our  esteem 
as  being  useful,  collecting  together  from  partly  remote  works 
the  material  referring  closely  to  passages  in  the  bible. 

In  that  way,  all  those  men  and  their  activity  bear  witness 
of  devoted,  earnest,  and  mental  freshness  as  far  as  it  could 
exist  in  that  surrounding.  They  all  are  not  dry  scholars;  all 
their  sayings  are  borne  by  enthusiastic,  deep  faith,  breathing 
loving  fervor,  and  revealing  pure,  sound,  moral  sense.  The 
simplicity  of  the  manners,  the  naivety  of  the  benevolent  heart 
reconciles  us  with  their  mental  conception,  sometimes  so 
narrow,  so  that  when  we  approach  them,  we  are  forced  to  say, 


368  Judaism  and  Its  History 

**We  have  entered  gloomy,  narrow  huts,  the  mind's  light 
could  not  shine  bright  in  there,  and  yet  it  was  not  extinguished, 
and  still  the  heart  was  fresh  and  sound.'* 

That  was  in  Northern  France  and  in  Germany. 


XII. 

Italy  and  Provence. 

An  essential  difference  between  the  Middle  Ages  and 
Antiquity,  among  others,  is  the  following:  In  Antiquity,  a 
single  people  always  stands  in  the  foreground,  deploys  its  full 
power  toward  the  outside  and  appears  as  surpassing  the  rest 
of  the  world  with  its  mental  culture ;  the  other  nations  either 
follow  its  lead  or  remain  in  their  dark,  dreaming  life.  In  such 
solitary  prevalence,  the  Egyptians,  the  Assyrians,  the  Baby- 
lonians, the  Persians,  the  Greeks,  the  Romans,  take  their 
turns.  In  the  Middle  Ages,  the  relation  shapes  itself  differ- 
ently. Several  nations  live  side  by  side,  remaining  on  the 
same  plane,  even  if  dissimilar  and  differing  among  themselves 
in  power  and  mental  progress,  but  representing  together  in 
general  a  certain  division  of  the  world  relative  to  power  and 
mental  effect.  That  is  to  be  ascribed  partly  to  the  influence 
of  the  ruling  Church.  Antiquity  produced  everything  out  of 
the  people;  mental  culture  and  religion  were  its  own  full 
property  as  it  grew  out  of  it,  and  for  that  reason  it  had  to 
shape  itself  to  a  power  dominating  the  less  developed  nations. 
In  the  Middle  Ages,  the  Church  was  a  universal  power,  it 
represented  itself  as  such,  standing  above  all  nations,  acknowl- 
edging the  life  of  no  single  nation,  or  rather,  no  national  life 
at  all,  as  justifiable.  It  did  not  permit  that  the  individuality 
of  a  nation  should  become  a  creative  energy  which  might 
produce  something  out  of  itself.  It  wanted  to  be  the  only 
power  to  which  all  mankind  must  do  homage,  out  of  which 
they  must  draw  all  their  force.  Civil  life  was  considered 
subordinate,  the  whole  worldly  activity  was  adjudged  vain, 
null  and  void,  and  accordingly,  each  people  might  carry  on 
their  affairs,  but  the  Church  alone  was  the  institution  which 
contained  the  mental  and  spiritual  treasures  for  all  and  dealt 
them  out  equally  to  all.    Thus  the  mental  life  was  separated 


370  Judaism  and  Its  History 

from  the  popular  life,  the  state  had  no  inspiration,  religion 
and  science  were  without  real  life,  without  the  energy  which, 
rooting  in  the  innermost  impulses  of  the  people,  constantly 
receives  new  nourishment  out  of  the  soil  of  actuality.  And 
both  religion  and  science,  became  mere  shadows  or  rigid 
shapes  which  did  not  live  in  the  innermost  heart  of  the  people. 
Thus  the  intermediate  link  which  joins  popular  life  with 
higher  popular  culture  was  missing  too;  viz.,  the  cultured 
language  which,  through  the  nobility  of  the  thought  that 
science  puts  into  it,  elevates  even  the  ordinary  relations  of 
life,  talked  about  in  it,  and  keeps  scientific  investigation  in 
connection  with  practical  life.  The  affairs  of  daily  life 
belonged,  in  the  Middle  Ages,  to  the  popular  language, 
uncultured  and  barbarized,  which  increased  the  rudeness  of 
the  manners  and  the  want  of  taste  in  modes  of  conception. 
The  affairs  of  science  and  religion  were  the  property  of  a 
language  of  scholars,  which  remained  remote  from  the  people, 
and  being  dead,  did  not  draw  out  of  the  constantly  running 
fountain  of  life  and  rejuvenate  itself.  In  addition,  that 
language  of  scholars,  Latin,  was  not  permitted  to  lead  back 
to  its  classic  products.  Being  works  of  Paganism,  they  were 
proscribed  and  only  the  degenerate,  fossilized  manner  of 
monkish  expression  was  permitted.  A  long  barrier  to  a  free 
development  of  the  mind  among  Christian  humanity. 

On  the  other  side,  that  arrangement  of  states  was  prepared 
by  the  Church  which  permitted  the  existence  of  different 
nations,  side  by  side,  and  gradually  brought  forth  a  group  of 
formed  states,  that  arrangement  of  states  which  later  pre- 
vailed as  a  political  axiom  under  the  name  of  European 
balance  of  power,  and  strives  now  for  acknowledgment  as  the 
right  of  the  nationalities.  Thus  we  see  during  the  Christian 
Middle  Ages,  several  nations,  side  by  side,  painfully  working 
themselves  up  out  of  the  mental  stagnation  and  equally  taking 
interest  in  the  higher  affairs  of  mankind,  according  to  the 
plane  which  they  occupied.  In  the  same  way,  we  meet  within 
Jewry  of  that  time  in  the  different  countries  with  the  con- 
temporaneous and  equal  endeavor  of  learning,  and  we  see 
men  arise  everywhere  who  unite  in  themselves  a  great  amount 


DoNOLO  371 

of  knowledge  as  the  exponents  of  the  time.  As  in  Germany 
and  France,  we  meet  the  same  phenomenon  in  the  other 
countries  which  had  at  that  time  reached  a  certain  degree 
of  culture.  In  Italy  too,  learning  developed  at  first  on  the 
Talmudical  field  only. 

Italy,  that  land  in  which  so  many  fragments  of  old  culture 
were  scattered  about  everywhere,  in  which  it  should  be 
expected  that  the  immediate  succession  to  Antiquity  should 
produce  a  deep  effect  upon  the  whole  life,  Italy  stood  at  that 
time  no  higher  than  any  one  of  the  other  countries.  There, 
too,  science  was  in  its  infancy,  befogged  by  the  spooky  shapes 
which  the  religious  tendency  of  the  times  had  conjured  up. 
Accordingly,  we  find  in  Italy  within  Jewry  also,  although  it 
had  gained  a  home  in  that  soil  for  centuries,  no  appearance 
of  anything  to  attract  attention,  down  to  the  eleventh  cen- 
tury. Out  of  the  first  half  of  the  tenth  century,  a  long- 
forgotten  man  has  been  awakened  in  our  days  into  historic 
life.  Physician,  astronomer,  astrologer,  active  also  in  the 
field  of  Jewish  knowledge,  Shabthai  Donolo,  or  DonuluSy 
stood  on  the  summit  of  the  science  of  the  times,  but  what 
that  summit  means,  is  well  enough  known.  Medical  knowl- 
edge at  all  times  was  not  strange  to  the  Jews.  It  was  a  free 
science,  which  yet  offered  a  secure  position  for  living.  Accord- 
ingly, as  we  find  everywhere  and  at  all  times,  even  in  countries 
and  periods  where  science  and  culture  were  at  a  low  ebb, 
Jewish  physicians  and  medical  authors,  so  Shabthai  was  also 
active  as  physician,  astrologer  and  as  commentator  of  the 
booklet  on  the  creation  (Yezirah),  in  a  certain  sense  also  a 
philosophical  author.  If  we  put  him  beside  his  contem- 
porary and  acquaintance,  St.  Nilus,  it  would  be  difficult  to 
deny  him  the  preference  in  real  human  culture,  scientific 
intelligence  and  purified  devoutness.  When  St.  Nilus  became 
sick,  Shabthai  offered  him  his  services.  But  the  former 
declined  them;  he  feared  that  his  cure  by  a  Jew  might  injure 
the  position  of  the  Church. 

Only  about  the  end  of  the  eleventh  century — he  finished 
the  work  in  1101 — ^we  make  the  acquaintance  of  a  Talmudical 
scholar  who  has  attained  importance  as  an  author.    Nathan 


372  Judaism  and  Its  History 

Ben  Yechiel  of  Rome  composed  a  large  dictionary  to  the 
Talmud,  the  Midrashim,  and  the  Targum  (the  Chaldec  trans- 
lation of  the  bible).  It  is  not  supported  by  higher  scientific 
intelligence,  but  it  offers  so  rich  material  and  rests  on  such 
ancient  sources  that  it  lies  before  us  a  treasure  that  has  not 
been  fully  exploited  even  now.  We  have  learned  how  Aben 
Esra  found  Italy;  he  left  no  deeper  impressions  there.  Even 
Solomon  Parchon,  a  pupil  of  Aben  Esra  and  of  Juda  Ha-Levi, 
a  Spanish  refugee,  does  not  effect  much  there  by  his  diction- 
ary which,  following  Abulwalid,  he  finished  at  Salerno  in  1160. 
Italy  remains  up  to  the  period  which  we  have  designated 
as  the  terminal  point  of  the  present  consideration,  i.  e.,  the 
end  of  the  twelfth  century,  on  the  same  plane  on  which  the 
other  Christian  countries  were  stopping. 

The  Provence  offers  a  somewhat  different  aspect.  That 
sunny  part  of  France  was  more  independent  in  its  civil  and 
political  relations,  and  the  various  influences  which  came  in 
from  abroad,  stimulated  activity  in  many  ways.  France, 
from  its  beginning,  had  the  tendency  to  firmer  centralization 
so  that  the  power  of  the  crown  was  more  influential  and  the 
people  more  compact  and  united.  But  that  had,  in  the 
Middle  Ages  the  disadvantageous  consequence  for  the  Jews 
that  they  were  totally  pressed  to  the  rear  and  out  as  an  alien 
element,  and  it  actually  very  soon  occurred  in  Northern 
France.  But  in  the  South,  the  individual  barons  and  counts 
possessed  greater  independence,  the  people  had  a  freer  devel- 
opment, and  the  Jewish  people,  too,  enjoyed  far  greater 
liberty.  Still,  in  the  middle  of  the  twelfth  century,  we  run 
across  a  document  by  which  a  Jewish  owner  of  real  estate, 
Kalonymos  Ben  Todros,  sells  to  the  Commander  of  St.  Jean 
two  properties  with  all  manorial  rights  which  he  had  held  as 
owner.  If  such  freer  condition  tended  to  mental  development 
in  all  directions,  the  geographical  position  at  that  time  also 
had  an  excellent  effect  on  its  intellectual  advance.  It  lay 
half  way  between  France  and  Spain.  From  the  former  came 
the  severe,  almost  gloomy,  Talmudical  learning  into  the 
country,  from  Spain  the  stream  of  science  flowed  in.  Not 
enough  that  numerous  emigrants  from  Spain  who  escaped 


Provence  ..  373 

from  the  persecutions  of  the  Almohades  increased  the  popu- 
lation of  the  Provence  by  settling  there;  they  brought  along 
from  their  former  home  the  entire  rich  culture  and  the  treas- 
ures of  their  science  and  literature,  and  tried  to  make  another 
home  for  them  in  their  new  country. 

Before  that,  we  meet  in  that  country  beginnings  of  learn- 
ing, Talmudic  and  Midrashic  authorities,  like  Moses  Darshan 
of  Narbonne,  who  flourished  there  about  the  first  half  of  the 
eleventh  century,  and  others  who  were  teachers  and  propa- 
gators of  Talmudic  science.  In  the  twelfth  century,  the 
group  of  men  is  numerous,  who,  provided  with  all  aids  of 
Talmudic  spirit  and  knowledge,  made  an  excellent  record, 
practically  and  theoretically.  In  Lunel,  Meshullam  Ben  Jacob 
lived  with  his  learned  sons,  also  his  pupil  Serachya  Ben  Israel 
Ha-Levij  who  is  described  as  of  Spanish  descent,  a  man  of 
great  self-consciousness,  decided  power,  and  great  intelligent 
youthfulness,  who  provided  glossaries  to  the  works  of  earlier 
Talmudic  scholars  and  asserted  his  own,  independent  view 
in  opposition  to  them.  His  fight  against  a  great  teacher,  he 
even  defends  in  the  preface  with  the  words,  "The  old  sages 
say,  *Dear  is  Plato  to  me,  dear  is  Socrates,*  but  dearest  to 
me  is  truth."  That  is  an  assertion  of  independent  conviction 
against  the  belief  in  authority  by  words  of  Greek  wisdom. 
There  in  Posquieres  lived  Abraham  Ben  David,  a  man  of  vast 
Talmudic  learning,  of  bold  mind,  but  in  ill  humor  at  every 
opposition,  and  looking  gloomily  upon  Spanish  tendency  and 
dissatisfied  with  the  Talmudic  work  of  Maimonides,  which 
was  the  only  work  of  that  author  he  was  acquainted  with. 
There  was  also  Isaac  Ben  Ahhamari  at  Marseilles,  author  of  a 
learned  Talmudic  work,  "Ittur,"  and  many  others. 

The  Provence  is  yet  more  important  as  go-between, 
between  the  Northern-French  and  the  Spanish  views,  or 
rather  by  the  labor  of  bringing  the  Spanish-Arabian  works, 
which  would  later  have  been  inaccessible  to  the  Jews,  to  the 
knowledge  of  those  who  did  not  understand  Arabic,  in  Hebrew 
adaptations  and  translations,  and  thus  spread  them  all  over. 
Already  in  the  first  half  of  the  twelfth  century  we  notice  the 
individual  appearance  of  men  of  science  coming  over  from 


374  Judaism  and  Its  History 

Spain;  among  others,  Abraham  Ben  Chiyah,  a  mathematician, 
who  appears  as  an  authority  to  the  mathematicians  of  the 
Middle  Ages  under  the  mutilated  name  Savasorda.  Two 
families  gained  excellent  merit  in  the  second  half  of  the 
twelfth  century  and  exerted  a  peculiarly  great  influence  upon 
succeeding  times.  They  are  Kimchi  and  the  Thibbon 
families,  Joseph  Ben  Isaac  Kimchi^  the  father,  and  his  two 
learned  sons,  Moses  and  David  Kimchi^  as  imitators,  brought 
linguistic  knowledge,  grammar,  lexicography,  sober  explana- 
tion of  the  bible,  from  Spain  over  into  the  Provence.  Joseph 
Kimchi  composed  commentaries  to  many  biblical  works, 
adapted  and  translated  some  philosophical  and  poetical  pieces 
of  literature  of  Spain,  and  thus  became  one  of  the  new  founders 
of  scientific  life  for  the  entire  Middle  Ages.  Moreover,  the 
influence  of  the  new  home  upon  the  linguistic  treatment  of 
the  Hebrew  appears  in  Joseph  Kimchi  in  a  remarkable  manner. 
The  Jewish  grammarians  among  the  Arabians  had,  according 
to  the  peculiarity  of  the  Arabic  language,  put  up  also  for  the 
Hebrew  three  principal  vowels;  namely,  a,  e,  o.  Joseph 
Kimchi  was  the  first  one  who,  influenced  by  the  Romanic 
languages,  carried  the  division  into  five  vowels  also  into 
Hebrew,  and  that,  with  double  marks  for  long  and  short 
vowels.  Both  of  his  sons  followed  his  way.  Of  greater 
importance  than  the  older  son  Moses  who  perhaps  attained 
greater  fame  than  he  merits,  David,  known  everywhere  under 
the  name  Redak^  was  the  teacher  of  the  entire  Middle  Ages 
by  his  grammar,  his  dictionary,  and  his  commentary  on  the 
bible,  and  honored  as  almost  indisputable  authority.  That 
scholar  well  merits  the  fame  and  the  respect  he  enjoys,  by 
his  exact  carefulness  and  his  intelligent  industry  as  collector, 
even  if  he  was  not  a  creative  energy.  Just  by  not  striving 
for  originality,  by  only  desiring  to  present  plainly  and  to 
transmit  comprehensibly,  his  effect  was  more  lasting  and  he 
became  the  reliable  guide  of  the  entire  Middle  Ages  until  the 
past  century;  and  even  to-day,  his  writings  are  properly 
much  esteemed  and  offer  instruction  much  material  that  has 
not  yet  been  exhausted. 

The  other  family,  the  Thibbons,  followed  the  Spaniards 


The  Thibbons  375 

much  more  closely.  While  the  Kimchis  worked  more  inde- 
pendently, the  Thibbons  were  satisfied  to  make  translations 
and  closely  followed  the  tracks  of  their  predecessors  and 
masters.  Jiida  Ben  Saul  Thibbon,  also  at  the  beginning  of 
the  second  half  of  the  twelfth  century  was  a  physician,  pos- 
sessed an  exact  knowledge  of  Arabic,  and  was  a  man  of  high 
general  culture.  He  not  only  translated  grammatical  books, 
like  the  works  of  Abulwalid,  which  thereby  became  also 
accessible  to  the  younger  Kimchis  who,  as  it  seems,  did  not 
understand  Arabic,  but  his  greatest  merit  consists  in  having 
made  translations  of  the  works  of  the  Arabian-Jewish  philos- 
ophers. He  translated  the  religio- philosophical  works  of 
Saadias,  the  *' Duties"  of  Bechai  Ben  Bakuda,  the  religio- 
philosophical  book  Cusari  of  Juda  Ha-Levi,  and  other  things. 
Those  works,  if  they  had  remained  in  Arabic  only,  might 
perhaps  in  our  days  have  been  found  again  and  appeared  as 
monuments  of  boldly  striving,  mightily  wrestling  and  investi- 
gating minds.  But  they  would  have  had  no  effect,  would 
not  have  illuminated  the  long  darkness.  We  owe  it  to  Juda 
Thibbon  that  those  works  were  not  only  preserved  through 
the  entire  Middle  Ages  but  that  they  flowed  as  a  stream  of 
life  through  their  sandy  desert  and  impregnated  it  in  many 
ways.  The  oppressed  spirit  was  refreshed  by  them,  the 
hearts  bowed  down  were  raised  by  them.  Juda  Thibbon  had 
an  only  son,  Samuel.  It  is  something  peculiarly  pathetic,  if 
we  are  introduced  into  the  close  domesticity  and  the  little 
cares  of  a  scholar  of  merit,  and  that  is  permitted  to  us  by 
Juda  Thibbon.  We  have  a  writing  from  him  to  his  son 
which  contains  a  sort  of  scientific  testament.  Samuel,  being 
an  only  son,  seems  to  have  been  somewhat  spoiled.  His 
father  cared  for  him  with  the  greatest  tenderness,  took  every 
means  to  expand  his  mental  power  in  the  best  manner,  kept 
for  him  the  most  excellent  instructors,  encouraged  him  in 
every  way,  and  on  that  very  account,  Samuel  was  peevish 
and  the  petty  pedantic  guidance  of  his  father  made  him 
unwilling.  In  this  testament,  Juda  complains  of  that  and 
exhorts  his  dear  son,  against  whom  he  could  not  make  any 
other   complaint,   who   was  well  endowed   by   nature  and 


376  Judaism  and  Its  History 

possessed  praiseworthy  moral  sentiment,  to  respond  more  to 
his  care.  He  had  put  up  so  many  fine  book-cases  for  him, 
procured  expensive  works,  all  books  were  beautifully  written, 
bound  excellently,  and  kept  in  good  order.  He  had  advised 
him  to  write  a  fine,  neat  hand  as  he  had  noticed  he  could  do, 
had  encouraged  him  in  the  study  of  Arabic  and  all  sciences 
and  smoothed  the  way  for  him;  in  all  books  he  would  find 
notes  made  to  facilitate  the  understanding.  What  he  had 
so  far  done  sluggishly,  he  ought  now  to  attend  to  seriously, 
as  he  would  soon  have  no  guide.  He  should  take  good  care 
of  the  books,  take  the  unbound  Hebrew  ones  out  of  the  cases 
and  dust  them  once  a  month,  the  Arabic  ones  once  in  two 
months,  and  the  bound  ones  every  three  months,  and  thus  he 
continues  with  similar  exhortations.  I  hardly  think  that 
such  well-intended  and  tender  anxiety  or  benevolent  torture 
could  have  effected  much;  it  might  rather  have  set  the  son 
still  more  against  those  studies  than  guide  him  up  to  them. 
But  the  sun  of  Maimonides  arose.  That  work,  "The  Guide 
of  the  Perplexed"  made  a  striking  impression  on  the  spoiled 
youth  by  the  fullness  of  the  thoughts,  the  boldness  and  power 
of  conviction  and  the  rounding  out  of  his  system.  He  needed 
no  further  spurring  to  study.  Samuel  went  at  it  with  a  will, 
and  resolved  to  translate  the  work.  He  opened  communi- 
cation with  the  author  and  sent  him  his  translation  for 
approval  and  correction,  piece  by  piece.  The  correspondence 
between  Samuel  and  Maimonides  is  as  fine  as  instructive. 
Thus,  taking  no  account  of  some  other  translations  made  by 
him,  and  his  own  literary  attempts,  Samuel  executed  a  very 
meritorious  work  by  his  translation  of  the  "Guide."  To  him 
we  owe  it  that  later  times  came  into  its  possession  and  received 
its  fructifying  effect. 

By  their  translations,  the  Thibbons  became  the  creators 
of  the  peculiar  philosophical,  Hebrew  style.  Neither  the 
language  of  the  bible,  nor  that  of  the  rabbis  was  sufficient  to 
render  all  philosophical  terms  according  to  their  speculative 
development.  The  careful  endeavors  of  the  Thibbons  have 
created  a  philosophic-Hebrew  language  which  is  not  elegant 
but  has  the  advantage  of  definiteness  and  exact  expression 


The  Church  in  the  Middle  Ages  377 

of  the  thought.  It  gained  adoption  into  Jewish  literature  and 
became  generally  comprehensible  in  spite  of  its  occasional 
strange  new  formations.  It  grew  into  a  pliant  instrument  for 
the  expression  of  philosophic  ideas  for  later  authors,  and  thus 
again  a  new  germ  for  rich  growth  of  culture  in  succession. 
The  Provence  had  become  a  store-house  for  the  manifold 
treasures  of  learning,  a  gathering  place  for  minds  very  differ- 
ently developed  and  separate.  Will  they  have  peaceable 
communication  together? 

We  have  come  to  the  summit  of  the  Middle  Ages.  With 
the  end  of  the  twelfth  century  an  important  period  closes  for 
the  history  of  the  Middle  Ages  in  general  as  well  as  for  the 
history  of  Judaism  within  it.  History  has  passed  through 
twelve  centuries.  We  have  kept  company  with  it,  and  we 
began  the  journey  with  two  great  events;  the  entrance  of 
Christianity  into  the  world's  history  and  the  dissolution  of 
the  Jewish  nationality.  In  the  course  of  those  twelve  cen- 
turies, the  Church  has  constantly  extended  its  power  and  has 
become  dominant  afar.  Its  first  home,  where  its  cradle 
stood,  it  was  soon  forced  to  leave,  and  it  has  never  carried 
any  fructifying  life  there.  Palestine  has  never  attained  a 
flowering  growth  through  the  Church;  though  the  land  wais 
at  one  time  in  possession  of  the  Church,  it  did  not  remain  so. 
Its  second  home  was  the  city  and  the  empire  where  the  Church 
mounted  the  throne.  In  Constantinople,  in  the  Eastern 
Roman  Byzantine  Empire,  it  attained  domination  in  the 
fourth  century.  It  did  not  bring  the  blessings  of  a  rich 
development  to  that  new  home  either.  The  Byzantine 
Empire  shrank  together  within  itself,  its  power  and  mental 
culture  became  empty  formulas,  stunted  into  quarrels  about 
etiquette,  until  that  home  in  course  of  a  later  time  was  also 
taken  from  the  Church.  But  it  has  founded  a  third  home  for 
itself  and  spread  from  there  the  fullness  of  its  whole  power 
over  the  Occident.  From  Rome,  which  has  not  yet  lost  the 
old  right  of  possession  to  be  the  center  of  the  world  and  all 
political  dominion,  the  Church  has  extended  its  influence  afar, 
has  constantly  increased  its  power  in  the  course  of  those 
centuries,  and  has  attained  its  summit  at  the  end  of  the 


378  Judaism  and  Its  History 

twelfth  century.  Yet  it  was  not  able  in  the  first  centuries  to 
penetrate  the  Roman  people,  the  Italian  state;  it  could  furnish 
no  resistance  to  the  submersion  by  barbarism.  Pressure  of 
barbarism  can  overcome  and  throw  down  only  there  where  it 
strikes  against  inert,  mindless  masses,  against  effeminate 
people  with  hollow,  pseudo-culture.  The  living  spirit, 
awakened  consciousness  of  the  people,  a  refined  mind,  opposes 
a  powerful  dam  to  the  attacking  flood,  to  the  raw,  natural 
force.  The  migration  of  nations  did  not  destroy  Roman 
culture,  Roman  culture  was  already  collapsed,  the  Church 
had  not  breathed  a  new,  healthy  spirit  into  it,  and  therefore 
the  migration  of  nations  could  force  in  without  hindrance. 
The  Church,  being  carrier  of  higher  ideas,  tamed  those  savage 
hordes ;  that  is  its  greatest  merit.  Yet  it  did  not  prove  itself 
a  higher  intellectual  power  to  which  free  minds  willingly  do 
homage,  which  brings  all  noble  impulses  in  the  character  and 
life  of  the  people  to  development ;  it  became  a  spiritual  power 
that  bent  down  the  enslaved  minds  under  itself.  In  the 
course  of  those  twelve  centuries,  there  arose  no  new  science, 
no  popular  literature  fed  by  the  fresh  forces  and  matter. 
There  is  a  long  desert  with  scantily  wrung  fruits,  a  dried-up 
scholarship,  torturing  dissection  of  uncomprehended  ideas. 
Facing  such  impressions  and  phenomena,  Judaism  had  no 
inducement  to  withdraw  from  the  stage  of  the  world,  it  did 
not  hear  the  urgent  admonition  of  the  world's  history: 
"Cease,  a  new  living  force  has  arisen  which  accomplishes 
your  task  in  higher  manner."  At  the  side  of  those  phenomena, 
Judaism  had  the  complete  right  to  preserve  and  present  its 
truth. 

If  in  those  twelve  centuries,  Judaism  had  to  pass  through 
difficult  times,  worse  were  yet  to  come.  With  the  beginning 
of  that  period,  a  wholly  new  life  commenced;  no  longer  carried 
by  a  closely  secluded  nation,  its  scattered  individuals  sent  out 
into  widely  different  directions,  the  doubt  might  well  arise: 
Can  such  a  cleft  people  preserve  itself?  Can  a  religion  joined 
so  closely  with  the  life  of  the  state,  continue  without  it? 
History  has  banished  such  misgivings.  Those  torn-apart 
members  have  accomplished  a  great  work.    Well  considering 


Judaism  in  the  Middle  Ages  379 

the  circumstances  of  the  time,  they  built  manifold  bulwarks 
and  walls  around  about  themselves,  in  order  not  to  succumb 
to  the  pressure  from  without,  and  yet  have  shaped  themselves 
by  great  intrinsic  force  of  preservation  and  evolution  out  of 
national  life  into  a  fellowship  of  faith.  They  have  elaborated 
their  system  with  mental  abundance,  have  fortified  and  made 
themselves  more  and  more  unassailable  in  the  truths  of  the 
faith,  but  have  also  imbued  life  with  the  views  which,  if  in 
part,  forcibly  retaining  a  passed  away  time,  yet  in  part 
impressed  upon  it  true  consecration  and  spiritual  elevation. 
Thus  they  have  faithfully  preserved  their  intrinsic  property, 
even  if  yielding  here  and  there  to  the  pressure  that  bore  upon 
them  from  without  and  led  them  to  malformations;  they  have 
elaborated  their  system  to  its  depth  and  in  all  directions,  and 
have  taken  a  lively  part  in  all  higher  interests  of  life,  especially 
of  intellectual  life,  as  far  as  they  were  given  room.  In  the 
meantime,  Judaism  has  impregnated  the  Church  with  a 
knowledge  of  the  Hebrew  bible,  has  nurtured  Islam  in  its 
cradle,  has  matured  new  linguistic  knowledge,  has  graven 
deep  marks  in  the  development  of  every  science  in  times  when 
mental  elevation  was  possible. 

What  gives  it  its  charter  of  nobility,  is  that  during  that 
entire  period  it  never  lost  the  benevolent,  genuinely  humane 
sentiment  toward  its  own  members  as  well  as  toward  outsiders. 
No  proof  is  needed  for  the  delicacy  of  feeling  which  Jews  have 
shown  at  all  times  toward  their  fellow-believers;  it  is  a  well- 
known  fact.  But  also  toward  other  religions  which  had  only 
the  word  of  damnation  against  men  of  other  faiths,  Judaism 
held  fast  to  the  word  which  we  already  heard  in  the  Talmudic 
time,  that  the  righteous  of  all  various  nations  and  religions 
have  a  share  in  the  future  life.  That  had  penetrated  all  circles 
and  strata  of  the  Jewish  popular  life.  When  a  Moslem, 
convert  to  Judaism,  heard  from  his  teacher  the  harsh  word, 
that  he  had  been  an  idolator  before,  and  directed  an  inquiry 
on  that  point  to  Maimonides,  he  was  answered:  "Such  a 
sentence  is  to  be  doubly  disapproved,  when  coming  from  one 
who  should  serve  as  teacher  and  pattern.  If  professors  of 
Islam  tell  falsehoods  about  the  Jews,  that  does  not  give  pro- 


380  Judaism  and  Its  History 

fessors  of  Judaism  the  right  of  judging  Islam  more  severely 
than  it  merits.  The  professors  of  Islam  make  pilgrimages  to 
Mecca  and  pray  at  the  Kaaba,  that  old  black  stone  which 
had  been  idolatrously  worshiped  during  pagan  times  among 
the  Arabs.  But  that  could  not  be  counted  idolatry,  it  being 
merely  an  old  custom,  while  the  belief  in  the  one  God  is  and 
remains  the  basis  and  center  of  Islam."  That  corresponds 
perfectly  to  another  Talmudic  saying,  that  the  nations  outside 
of  the  holy  land  were  not  idolators  and  had  simply  preserved 
the  customs  of  their  fathers,  without  idolatry  taking  root  in 
their  heart.  That  doctrine  had  at  all  times  the  force  of  law 
in  Judaism,  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  from  its  point  of  view, 
the  religion  of  the  surrounding  nations  must  have  appeared 
to  it  a  second  edition  of  heathenism. 

During  that  entire  period,  the  teachers  and  carriers  of 
Judaism  shine  by  learning  and  purity  of  morals.  In  the 
Church,  it  is  not  rare  that  even  highest  dignitaries  are  deeply 
sunk  in  ignorance.  The  pride  of  Judaism  was  the  fostering 
of  learning.  Only  the  scholar  enjoyed  lasting  honor ;  everyone 
considered  it  a  holy  duty  to  have  a  knowledge  of  the  doctrine 
according  to  his  power  and  opportunity;  his  joy  was  in  inter- 
course with  scholars,  and  it  was  a  raising  of  his  own  value,  to 
esteem  science  in  others.  In  other  faiths,  cases  of  demoraliza- 
tion just  in  the  places  where  we  should  expect  virtue  and 
justice,  love  and  benevolence,  are  not  rare;  with  the  Jewish 
teachers,  sense  of  justice,  sentiment  of  fairness,  and  mild 
disposition  prevail,  and  an  exception  could  hardly  be 
found.  From  all  those  centuries,  we  possess  opinions  and 
legal  decisions  upon  the  most  various  relations  in  life,  and  in 
all  of  them,  sound  sense  and  a  clear  conception  of  life  are 
joined  to  most  severe  impartiality,  unbending  sense  of  justice, 
most  serious  care  for  preservation  of  morality  and  promotion 
of  the  common  weal.  All  honor  to  those  men,  able  of  mind 
and  heart,  even  if  many  among  them  could  not  pass  beyond 
the  low  standard  of  their  time  and  country. 

Judaism  of  the  Middle  Ages  also  reached  its  summit  about 
that  time.  From  now  on,  the  course  is  downward  in  the 
history  of  the  Middle  Ages,  as  in  that  of  Judaism.    Within 


The  Protestant  Reformation  381 

the  Church,  decompositions  and  frictions  take  place,  the 
nationalities  want  to  work  up,  science  wants  to  attain  liberty 
— but  the  Church  draws  the  reins  tighter,  to  prevent  that. 
From  time  to  time,  a  mortal  combat  arises,  but  the  power  of 
the  Church  is  not  broken,  free  movements  are  watched  with 
more  suspicion  and  persecuted  more  severely.  Then  from  all 
sides  arises  the  rallying  cry:  "Reform  all  through,  reforma- 
tion of  morals,  views,  faith  and  life!"  Again  it  almost  seems 
the  call  will  be  choked  in  blood  and  the  flame  of  the  pyre. 
But  no !  A  part  secedes,  but  the  old  Church  retains  its  power 
over  the  greater  part.  About  the  second  half  of  the  sixteenth 
century  the  nations  wrestle  up  and  are  still  wrestling  with  the 
old  view  which  has  not  fully  lost  its  power,  which  still  to-day 
sends  out  the  fulminations  of  excommunications  even  if  they 
no  longer  set  afire,  and  which  still  to-day  comes  forward  with 
the  same,  or  even  increased  wrath  against  all  science  and 
political  formation. 

Judaism  has,  during  the  course  of  that  time,  a  doubly 
difficult  position  for  contrary  reasons;  it  is  persecuted  by  two 
enemies,  hostile  to  each  other.  The  old  animosity  of  the 
Church  is  not  decreased,  but  even  the  new  rising  nationality 
looks  no  less  unfriendly  upon  Judaism.  People  and  state 
have  not  yet  the  full  consciousness  of  their  power,  they  do  not 
yet  possess  the  confidence  in  themselves  that  they  can  also 
receive  strange  matter  into  their  body,  work  it  up  and  divest 
it  of  its  strangeness.  To  the  just  awakening  and  easily 
vulnerable  nationality,  Judaism  and  its  believers  appear 
strange  material  that  must  be  excluded  and  kept  off.  Thus, 
persecuted  by  both  parties,  crushed  from  without  and  within, 
Judaism  leads  a  sad  existence  for  several  centuries  till  in  the 
middle  of  the  last  century.  Then  a  new  time  begins  for  it 
also,  a  new  light  illuminates  mankind,  shines  through  the  wide 
spaces  of  the  world,  and  penetrates  also  into  the  dark  chambers 
of  Jewry. 

How  the  time  will  develop  farther,  how  mankind  will 
form  itself  in  that  wrestling,  is  not  in  doubt  for  the  presentient 
eye,  spying  into  the  distance.  The  mind  of  mankind  is 
striving  upward,  the  nations  altogether  as  individual  members 


382  Judaism  and  Its  History 

of  one  great  body  of  humanity  will  be  illuminated  by  the  real, 
divine  spirit,  all  mutually  promoting,  strengthening,  and 
purifying  each  other,  and  religion  will  appear  as  the  energy 
of  life,  rejuvenated  as  the  noblest  flower  of  wisdom  in  the 
minds.  Whether  it  will  be  that  religion  which  has  inherited 
the  power,  whether  it  will  be  able  to  work  up  to  the  full 
height  of  accomplishing  its  reconciliation  with  the  live,  political 
spirit  and  with  science — to  render  a  final  verdict  on  that,  may 
be  left  to  the  future.  At  any  rate,  Judaism,  since  it  is  permit- 
ted to  enter  into  the  full  movement  of  the  world's  history,  has 
rejuvenated  its  spirit,  received  science,  and  has  partly  broken 
through  the  bars  which  excluded  it  as  mere  national  faith  from 
the  rest  of  mankind.  That  change  of  form  and  mental  transfor- 
mation of  Judaism  is  a  fact  which  it  has  already  accomplished 
during  the  narrow,  only  gradually  widening  opening  of  its 
jail  gates,  a  fact  out  of  the  history  of  the  last,  painful  century 
which  is  graven  with  shining  lines  into  the  tablets  of  history. 
Animated  by  the  breath  of  complete  liberty,  constantly 
more  and  more  imbued  with  the  spirit  of  science  and  widening 
and  deepening  the  view,  Judaism  of  the  present  will  steadily 
become  more  and  more  conscious  of  its  task  and  strive  for 
its  accomplishment,  a  task  which  corresponds  as  much  to  all 
deeper  endeavor  of  the  present  as  it  is  deeply  rooted  in  its  own 
basic  essence:  to  become  the  religion  of  mankind.  Only  that 
religion  which  is  reconciled  with  free  thought  has  the  justifica- 
tion, but  at  the  same  time  also,  the  guarantee  of  its  continuance. 
On  the  contrary,  every  religion  which  makes  battle  against 
the  right  of  the  mind  will  be  crushed  under  the  wheels  of 
time.  Only  that  religion  which  carries  the  guarantee  of  its 
future  within  itself,  which  considers  it  its  task  to  spend  its 
blessings  to  all  mankind,  and  therefore  presents  itself  to  the 
totality  in  a  form  fit  for  it,  not  one  that  confines  itself  to  a 
narrow  circle,  withdraws  into  a  cell,  bars  itself  from  the  rest 
of  mankind  as  if  that  were  a  soulless  or  alien  body  and  is 
absorbed  by  preference  into  its  own  petty  interests.  Judaism 
will  always  bear  in  mind  that  it  is  called  to  strive  for  the  goal, 
even  if  that  can  not  be  brought  about  by  us  alone,  that  God 
will  be  acknowledged  as  one,  and  His  name  as  one. 


Notes. 

1.  To  7  (Page  298) 

These  words  are  quoted  in  the  Hebrew  original  by  Abul- 
walid  in  Rikmah  C,  21  end  page  140.  The  last  word  is  to 
be  read  ^nmo  according  to  the  manuscript,  instead  of  *nnD 
as  it  appears  in  print.  That  Menahem  is  the  author  of  the 
verses  and  that  they  are  addressed  by  him  to  Chasdai  is  a 
supposition  which  experts  will  approve. 

2.  To  7  (Page  299) 

As  the  verses  now  appear,  the  acrostic  p'm  |a  KnJK  is 
given.  That  the  beginning  of  one  verse  should  be  read 
nit3  (with  Beth),  instead  of  niTB  Luzatto  has  already  shown 
from  the  first  edition  (Kerem  Chemed  VIII.,  page  86). 
He  then  also  recognized  (ibid,  page  188)  that  the  name 
Menahem  Ben  Saruk  is  in  the  acrostic,  he  having  indicated 
himself  thereby  as  composer  of  the  epistle.  But  how  about 
the  three  wrong  letters?  Luzatto  supposes  that  Menahem 
had  been  afraid  and  had  hidden  his  name  by  exchanging  the 
letters.  No  proper  reason  can  be  imagined  for  such  a  game 
of  hide-and-seek  which  would  have  served  no  purpose  and 
would  have  destroyed  the  aim  of  the  acrostic.  I  rather 
suppose  that  Menahem  had  originally  shown  his  name  in  full 
and  that  his  words  appear  now  before  us  in  changed  form. 
The  sentence:  D^DM  1DK^»:i  wnvn  IDIK  may  have  been  origin- 
ally: D^DTi  1D1K1  D^nyn  )^^D  as  he  uses  later  on  in  the  letter 
the  expression:  D^nyn  OtJ'D  1&J^«  IV  and  by  that,  the  first  Mem 
in  Menahem  would  be  established  instead  of  the  Alef.  At 
the  beginning  of  the  sentence  >S3  K'-iDN  ^ni^i^^X  fiN  ^«  the 
fitting  word  UMD  may  have  dropped  out,  perhaps  >:^y  «15^K 
stood  in  place  of  ^33  C^'IDK ;  that  will  restore  the  second  Mem 
in  Menahem.  The  words  21  ^^o  nnp  nVJ  were  probably 
preceded  by  n^D  which  all  ancients,  and  Menahem  too,  render 


384  Judaism  and  Its  History 

"forever"  (compare  his  dictionary,  Edition  Filipowsky 
page  120);  and  hereby  the  Samekh  in  Saruk  would  be 
restored.  If  my  supposition  is  correct,  that  the  acrostical 
indication  of  his  name  at  the  side  of  that  of  his  patron 
excited  the  ire  of  Chasdai  against  Menahem,  it  is  also  very 
explicable  that  he  caused  the  destruction  of  that  acrostic, 
which  was  easily  attained  by  the  omission  of  the  first  word  of 
the  last  two  verses,  and  by  transposition  in  the  first  one, 
which  was  then  closer  to  the  biblical  language  because  in  the 
bible  ,'IK'D  ,  used  of  time  dragging  along,  occurs  only  in 
Niphal,  while  Menahem  here,  where  the  Mem  demanded  by 
the  acrostic  might  induce  it,  but  also  in  the  body  of  the  letter 
where  nothing  forced  it,  uses  the  Kal  in  that  sense.  So 
much,  to  support  the  position  given  in  the  text,  which  I  want 
to  be  considered  a  supposition  only. 

3.  To  10.  (Page  335) 

It  does  not  matter  who  was  the  Greek  Talmudist  whom 
Aben  Esra  inveighed  against  so  violently  in  that  poem,  and 
we  shall  hardly  be  able  to  fix  particulars  about  him,  as  Aben 
Esra  himself  gives  but  dim  indications  about  his  person. 
Luzatto,  who  was  the  first  one  to  publish  the  poem  (Kerem 
Chemed  IV.,  page  138),  thought  by  one  verse  of  it,  that  the 
man's  name  was  Shimei  (page  139,  Note  6).  But  that  rests 
on  a  misunderstanding.  The  words  from  which  Luzatto  con- 
cludes that  name,  are  (page  140): 

iDytD  Dy  \)2^n)  )dv  t^'n^m  idc^d  '>vn^  idd 
D^K^VD  Y^P^  M^  n'>^  Dnn  ^Ji>     :D^p>ny  Dnm 

To  that,  Luzatto  very  correctly  annotates  (Note  8)  that 
if  *'  •'Jr  "  (the  Greek),  in  numerical  value  of  the  letters  = 
76  is  added  to  >yoj^  =  420,  the  sum,  496,  corresponds  to 
the  word  j*1pK^  (abomination).  But  the  preceding  words 
clearly  indicate  a  play  with  the  numerical  value  of  the  name, 
and  that  the  man's  name  was  not  Shimei.  They  are  to  be 
rendered  Odc^3)  with  Beth  is  probably  better):  "As  much 
as   Shimei   is  in  his  name   if   his  surname   is  added;  the 


Notes  385 

agreement  of  the  numerical  value  with  the  meaning  of  the 
word  is  an  old,  well-proved  matter.'*  Then  he  continues  in 
the  same  manner:  "Add  to  them  (the  given  name  and  the 
patronymic),  ^J1>  ,  and  it  becomes  Y^P^'  .  Accordingly,  the 
man's  name  was  not  Shimei,  but  his  two  names,  of  which 
one  is  surname,  equal  Shimei  in  numerical  value;  by  which 
Shimei  Ben  Gera,  who  cursed  and  abused  David,  is  indi- 
cated (2  Sam.  16,  5,  etc.),  and  the  Greek  is  compared  to 
him  because  he  attacked  great  teachers  in  like  manner  with 
curses  and  abuse.  But  the  real  name  is  not  given  by  Aben 
Esra,  and  we  can  only  guess  at  it  by  calculation.  That 
makes  one  suppose — without  guarantee  for  its  correctness — 
that  the  Greek's  name  was  |nD  ntJ^D  which  two  names, 
given  name  and  surname,  together  have  the  numerical  value 
420,  just  like  "yoK^  .  Of  course,  there  is  little  gained  by 
guessing  the  name,  as  there  is  no  Moses  Cohen  in  Greece  of 
that  time  known  or  mentioned  elsewhere,  and  as  Aben  Esra 
described  him,  he  would  not  be  worth  further  search.  But 
other  arbitrary  suppositions  that  have  been  made  with  such 
great  assurance  in  this  matter,  are  hereby  shown  to  be 
erroneous. 


Appendix 


Open  Letter 

To  Professor  Dr.  H.  I.  Holtzmann, 


Dear  Sir: 

You  have  honored  the  first  volume  of  this  book  by 
such  a  circumstantial  discussion*  that  I  feel  obliged  to 
return  the  attention  by  entering  into  an  examination  of 
the  views  you  have  put  up  in  opposition  to  mine.  What 
we  have  to  discuss  between  ourselves,  are  questions  of  general 
interest;  personal  position  can  place  no  weight  into  the 
balance.  If  my  assertions  are  correct,  it  does  them  no  detri- 
ment that  they  "come  from  the  mouth  of  a  Jewish  rabbi,"  a 
man  of  whom  you  presume  "that  the  questions  treated  of 
here  with  such  frankness  about  religion,  revelation,  Scripture, 
biblical  history,  have  already  been  decided  in  advance  and 
that  in  a  sense  which  admits  of  no  variations.'*  That  pre- 
sumption only  proves  that  within  Christian-theological 
scholardom  there  is  no  idea  of  the  mighty  spiritual  movement 
which  has  ruled  at  all  times  in  Judaism  and  has  prevailed 
with  renewed  vigor  during  recent  years.  It  is  therefore  not 
surprising  that  you  now,  in  me,  "meet  a  Judaism  which  you 
have  not  known  thus  far,  at  the  sight  of  which  you  look  in 
vain  for  traces  of  Semitism,  reminiscences  of  Eisenmenger^ 
and  even  for  echoes  of  the  language  of  Canaan." 

Such  opening  words  might  really  spoil  all  desire  of  reading 
on;  to  such  degree  they  raise  the  presumption  of  mental 
narrowness.  Something  like  musty  odor  sticks  to  them  and 
they  come  close  to  the  manner  with  which  the  anonymous 
correspondent  of  the  Augsburger  Allgemeine  Zeitung  reviews 
my  book,  whose  entire  proceeding  makes  the  impression  of  a 
half -knowing  dilettanteism.  In  fact,  it  is  highly  surprising 
to  me  how  you  lean  upon  him  in  such  dependence,  copy  his 

*  Protestantlsche  Kirchenzeitung,  1865,  No.  10,  pp.  225-237. 


390  Judaism  and  Its  History 

disgusting  pretenses  of  humorous  allusions  to  Shylock  and 
become  so  captivated  by  them  that  you  turn  Shylock  yourself 
and  ironically  address  me  as  "wise  judge."  So  much  as 
passing  remark.  But  do  you  really  believe  that  in  the  pre- 
sentation of  Judaism  reminiscences  from  Eisenmenger  must 
rise  up  to  you?  Is  it  possible  that  such  is  your  knowledge  of 
Judaism,  especially  of  biblical  Judaism,  which  was  principally 
treated  of  in  the  first  volume?  Against  such  poorly  stocked 
knowledge,  it  is  hardly  worth  while  to  dispute.  You  looked 
in  vain  for  traces  of  Semitism  and  even  for  echoes  of  the 
language  of  Canaan.  My  German  style  should  abound  with 
very  rude  Hebraisms  and  bad  errors  of  speech,  to  be  acknowl- 
edged as  Jewish  by  you.  For  what  other  purpose  should  the 
language  of  Canaan  serve  here?  Has  every  presentation  of 
Christianity  to  carry  the  imprint  of  the  poor  Hebrew-Grecian 
dialect  in  which  the  earliest  Christian  writings  are  composed, 
to  be  permitted  to  lay  claim  to  fidelity?  You  look  in  vain  for 
traces  of  Semitism?  With  that  word,  a  very  wicked  game  is 
played  in  recent  times.  The  generic  notion  of  Semitism 
primarily  expresses  the  gathering  of  a  number  of  nations  with 
speech  of  the  same  family  of  languages  and  to  whom  therefore 
it  is  believed  to  be  proper  to  ascribe  a  common  descent.  In 
the  former  conception,  which  can  not  be  doubted,  as  well  as 
in  the  latter,  which  arises  from  analogy,  a  certain  common 
mental  disposition  of  those  nations,  a  certain  view  of  matters 
common  to  all,  is  acknowledged.  That,  too,  may  be  called 
Semitism.  But  the  mental  peculiarity  clinging  to  such  a 
family  of  nations  is  difficult  to  grasp,  and  still  more  so  to 
characterize  so  definitely  that  such  character  could  everywhere 
with  certainty  be  proved  in  their  products.  Such  classifica- 
tion has  led  into  great  errors  in  recent  times.  Sometimes 
taking  all  Semitic  nations  together,  a  monotheistic  instinct 
has  been  attributed  to  them,  while  not  one  Semitic  nation 
outside  of  the  Jews  professed  monotheism  and  that  belief  is 
not  original  with  the  Arabs,  but  was  accepted  by  them.  On 
the  other  hand,  all  philosophic  disposition  was  denied  to  those 
nations,  while  those  of  the  Aryan  or  Indo-German  family 
were  put  forward  as  endowed  with  especial  philosophic  pro- 


Appendix  391 

fundity.  As  if  all  European  nations  had  not  been  philosoph- 
ically educated  solely  through  their  contact  with  Hellenism — 
which  in  part  was  brought  to  them  by  Arabianism  and 
Judaism — while  they  were  not  able  to  produce  by  themselves 
any  other  culture  nor  any  philosophic  one.  Susceptibility 
was  shown  by  those  nations  by  accepting  the  influence  of 
Hellenism ;  but  was  that  not  shown  by  the  Arabians  and  the 
Jews  too,  if  it  is  still  determined  to  estimate  them  apart 
according  to  their  descent?  Of  course,  to  you,  seems  "the 
entire  Alexandrian  philosophy  of  religion  to  have  value  and 
significance  of  a  great  curiosity  only,  particularly  their  most 
prominent  representative  (Philo),  with  whom  the  figures  of 
the  Old  Testament  have  to  act  such  queer  roles  upon  Greek 
boards  and  before  a  Platonic  background."  But,  my  dear 
sir,  is  not  the  entire  conception  of  Christianity  as  it  is  expressed 
in  the  gospel  of  John  with  its  Logos,  the  whole  Greek  patristic 
with  its  symbolism,  solely  a  fruit  of  that  "great  curiosity?'* 
And  now  admit  frankly,  does  not  Schelling's  and  Hegel's 
philosophy  of  religion,  when  it  wants  to  join  itself  believingly 
to  the  Christian  facts,  come  very  close  to  that  "great  curios- 
ity?" You  seem  to  have  no  idea  of  a  speculative  development 
within  Judaism  after  Alexandrianism.  Perhaps  this  second 
volume  instructs  you  that  it  was  never  interrupted,  perhaps 
you  may  now  become  better  acquainted  with  the  influence 
upon  the  speculative  development  of  Christianity  exerted  by 
the  entire  Jewish  mental  history,  especially  by  several  Spanish 
thinkers,  like  Avicebron,  Maimonides  and  others.  You  will 
hardly  say  of  those  men  that  "they  had  grown  beyond  the 
specific-Jewish  world  of  conceptions  and  had  then  taken  big 
portions  out  of  the  contents  of  the  modern  Christian  mind." 
Yet  you  assert  that  of  "the  few  names  of  modern  culture 
which  are  connected  with  the  Old  Testament."  You  surely 
have  Spinoza  not  in  mind,  you  certainly  do  not  count  him 
among  the  modern  ones,  although  he  furnished  the  most 
prominent  impulse  to  the  modern  conception.  But  of  a  few 
more  recent  ones  who  may  appear  before  your  mind  in  that 
connection,  you  say  that  they  became  what  they  were  only 
by  having  grown  beyond  the  world  of  Jewish  conception  and 


392  Judaism  and  Its  History 

having  taken  big  portions  out  of  the  contents  of  the  modern 
Christian  mind.  For  the  present,  that  growing  beyond  may 
be  left  aside,  but  the  expression  "modern  Christian'*  which  is 
so  much  used  in  certain  circles,  deserves  a  serious  word. 

Of  course,  we  have  become  accustomed,  long  ago,  to  meet 
within  Christendom  with  a  combination  of  words  which  are 
in  most  decided  opposition  to  each  other  and  which  are  yet 
so  put  side  by  side  or  even  compounded  together  as  if  the 
contradiction  were  removed  thereby,  in  the  habit  of  seeking 
a  very  peculiar  profundity  of  thought  in  the  welding  together 
of  contradictory  terms  and  conceptions  and  in  the  belief  that 
such  profundity  is  formed  in  the  lack  of  clearness  and  per- 
spicuity (compare  above,  pp.  322,  etc.).  Used  to  such  out- 
of -joint  compounds  for  centuries,  the  expression  "modern 
Christian"  passes,  although  under  other  conditions  its  com- 
ponent parts  would  quickly  be  recognized  as  completely  dis- 
solving each  other.  For,  to  speak  plainly,  the  modern  is  not 
Christian,  and  the  Christian  is  not  modern.  Christianity  has 
closed  up  eighteen  centuries  ago,  has  kept  away  every  further 
movement,  fought  it  at  all  times  and  still  fights  it  to-day,  not 
only  in  its  greater  part,  Catholicism,  but  also  in  the  smaller 
part  of  Christendom  which  has  granted  some  room  to  historic 
development.  Protestantism,  where  in  theological  circles  the 
ruling  so-called  orthodoxy  fights  the  modern  as  its  worst 
enemy.  Modern  culture  leans  in  religion  upon  Jewish 
monotheism  and  in  science  and  arts  on  Hellenism,  while  it 
either  ignores  or  rejects  the  specifically  Christian.  Where 
attempts  appeared  to  really  create  something  "modern 
Christian,"  from  Ezechiel's  Vision  by  Raphael  to  Klopstock's 
Messias,  from  the  lucubrations  of  Jacob  Boehme  to  Schelling*s 
philosophy  of  revelation  and  the  like,  I  am  almost  tempted 
to  use  your  expression,  that  we  meet  here  "great  curiosities." 
I  do  not  misjudge  the  estimable  effort  of  the  human  mind  to 
reconcile  the  contradictions  revealed  thereby.  And  if  no 
healthy  fruit  resulted,  thinking  was  practised  and  the  mind 
was  exercised.  The  modern  nations  have  called  up  the 
modern  mental  development  and  Christianity  has  been 
forced  to  yield,  even  if  unwillingly,  to  its  influence.    That  is 


Christianity  and  Culture  393 

an  effect  exercised  upon  Christianity,  and  it  is  not  the  cause 
thereof.  To  that  general  movement  of  culture,  Judaism  has 
not  closed  its  doors,  it  rather  bas  willingly  given  itself  to  it 
and  has  taken  part  to  the  extent  of  its  powers.  It  is  therefore 
wholly  unjustifiable  to  say  the  Jews  have  "taken  big  portions 
out  of  the  contents  of  the  modern  Christian  mind."  They 
have  willingly  given  ear  and  mind  to  modern  culture ;  Christian 
matter  they  have  not  discovered  in  it,  and  as  far  as  found 
therein,  have  decidedly  kept  away  from  themselves. 

In  general,  there  is  a  very  dangerous  error  to  which 
Christian  theology  yields,  and  which  produces  very  serious 
confusion  of  thought.  All  earlier  history  it  considers  solely 
as  preparation  for  Christianity;  all  mental  labor  of  Jews  and 
Greeks  is  only  a  preparatory  school,  education  toward 
Christianity ;  it  does  not  even  hesitate  to  lay  claim  to  all  pithy 
and  juicy  elements  in  them  as  Christian  property.  Every 
new  humane  development  since  the  origin  of  Christianity  is 
considered  as  its  product.  I  have  already  acknowledged  the 
world-historic  influence  of  Christianity;  history  can  not  be 
erased  unpunished.  But  want  of  careful  consideration  should 
teach  modesty.  The  first  six  centuries  of  Christianity  are 
times  of  mental  decay,  moving  with  impetuous  rapidity;  there 
the  effects  of  Christianity  could  be  but  latent.  In  the  suc- 
ceeding six,  Islam  stands  at  the  head  of  national  and  mental 
life;  is  that  an  aberration  of  the  history  of  the  world?  Then 
two  centuries  enter  in  which  the  mental  movement  within 
Christendom  is  revealed  by  its  trying  to  get  rid  of  the  fetters 
which  the  existing  Christian  arrangements  form,  and  ending 
without  result.  The  efforts  may  be  considered  as  steps 
leading  toward  a  new  plane  of  Christian  culture,  at  any  rate 
the  fight  against  the  prevailing  Christian  ordinances  pre- 
dominated and  that  fight  received  its  weapons  from  other 
mental  powers  than  Christianity.  In  the  succeeding  time 
again,  liberation  does  not  proceed  from  Christian  thought, 
but  from  the  newly  resuscitated  Hellenism;  that  shakes 
violently  at  the  Church,  partly  bursts  it,  and  breaks  its 
omnipotence.  Because  now  for  three  centuries  the  nations 
with  Christianity  as  their  officially  ruling  religion  stand  at 


394  Judaism  and  Its  History 

the  head  of  culture,  just  like  the  nations  of  Islam  in  former 
centuries,  Christianity  claims  itself  entitled  to  proclaim  all 
modern  culture  as  its  work,  without  taking  the  earlier  or  con- 
temporaneous factors  into  consideration,  and  brags  on  what 
has  been  forced  from  it  and  accomplished  in  spite  of  its 
resistance,  as  if  it  were  its  work. 

In  like  manner  you  prove  to  me  what  I  owe  recent  Chris- 
tian authors.  "What  is  said  about  the  relation  of  revelation 
and  tradition  that  might,  if  Christianity  is  read  instead  of  Juda- 
ism, be  inserted  verbally  into  the  famous  part  of  Moehler's 
apology."  Of  the  first  lecture,  "The  Nature  of  Religion,"  you 
say:  "It  does  not  demand  separate  proof  that  that  language 
has  not  come  out  of  the  Talmud,  that  those  ideas  are  not  bor- 
rowed from  Rabbi  Hillel  or  any  other  one  of  those  teachers  who 
are  praised  by  the  author  so  much  beyond  all  measure,  .  .  . 
but  that  both,  thought  and  expression,  were  possible  only 
in  a  time  in  which  at  one  side  Schleiermacher  had  spoken  on 
the  essence  of  religion,  and  on  the  other  side  there  is  the 
endeavor  to  see  the  mental  patterned  in  nature.  ...  At 
any  rate  those  are  ideas  which  are  and  remain  transcendent 
to  the  genuine  Jew."  After  quoting  a  few  sentences  from  the 
third  lecture  on  revelation,  you  say  with  the  same  inexorabil- 
ity: "There  is  hardly  more  particular  proof  required  that 
we  can  consider  these  sentences  as  Jewish  only  if  the  specula- 
tive philosophy  of  the  Hegelian  school  deserves  that  name. 
We  are  out-and-out  reminded  of  Strauss,  if  the  sentence  is 
emphasized  and  elaborated  with  such  great  energy  that  the 
Jewish  people,  not  individuals,  had  been  the  vessels  of  that 
revelation.  .  .  .  The  idea  does  not  pour  its  contents  upon 
individuals,  but  upon  the  totality.  As  the  Greeks  were  the 
people  of  artistic  geniality,  but  not  all  artists,  but  as  a  nation 
alone  capable  of  producing  great  masters,  so  the  Jews  are  the 
people  of  revelation  from  which  came  the  favored  organs. 
With  such  views  the  author  steps  still  more  decidedly  beyond 
into  a  circle  of  thought  and  presentation  which  has  been 
drawn  neither  by  Jewish  hands  nor  by  Jewish  instruments. 
And  when  the  author  disregards  sundry  facts  which  disturb 
his  construction,  and  comforts  with  the  sentence  that  the  idea 


Appendix  395 

IS  also  in  Judaism  mightier  than  the  vessel  in  which  it  develops, 
we  may  recall  that  already  Herder  wants  to  find  the  key  to 
the  whole  history  of  Judaism  in  this,  that  it  had  been  a  vessel 
too  narrow  and  confining  for  the  contents  poured  into  it,  and 
that  it  had  perished  through  that  contradiction  in  capability 
and  task.     (Compare  Allg.  Ztg.,  page  5247.)" 

Thus,  according  to  you,  they  are  everywhere  "modern 
and  not  rarely  straight-out  Christian  ideas  of  which  the 
author  lives  and  with  which  he  operates,"  and  I  only  remain 
in  this,  "genuine  Jew,"  that  I  have  "by  no  means  got  over 
the  last  remainder  of  the  inveterate  deep  grudge  against  the 
victorious  daughter-religion.'*  My  dear  sir,  you  might  have 
extended  my  borrowing  much  farther  and  would  have  been 
sure  of  my  complete  approval.  Continue  and  pronounce 
that  I  have  not  myself  made  the  German  style  used  by  me, 
have  not  drawn  it  from  the  troubled  waters  of  the  Jewish- 
German  literature  of  the  Middle  Ages,  have  neither  formed 
myself  only  by  Mendelsohn  and  his  school  nor  by  Boerne  and 
Heine  who  were  of  Jewish  descent,  still  less  exclusively  by  our 
contemporaries  Riesser,  Berthold  Auerbach,  and  others,  but 
that  I  have  drawn  eagerly  from  the  German  classics  and  have 
endeavored  to  purify  my  esthetic  sense  by  their  artistic  pre- 
sentation as  far  as  my  capability  reaches.  But  what  does 
that  prove?  Only  so  much,  that  average  men  as  we  are, 
dear  sir,  have  to  accept  the  treasure  of  thought  stored  up  by 
the  men  of  great  genius  and  that  it  is  meritorious  if  we  work 
it  up,  make  it  our  own,  and  then  know  how  to  employ  it 
independently  or  even  to  enrich  it.  If  I  had  stupidly  passed 
by  those  great  treasures  of  the  centuries,  just  reproach  would 
apply  to  me;  on  the  contrary,  it  is  queer  that  I  am  blamed  for 
being  filled  by  the  thoughts  of  all  promoters,  even  of  those 
of  the  most  diverging  tendencies  and  for  having  in  a  particular 
manner  joined  into  an  independent  presentation  the  new 
thoughts  and  mental  turns  with  which  they  have  corrected 
and  enlarged  our  view. 

For  as  little  as  I  want  to  deny  the  influence  of  the  heroes 
of  our  time  upon  my  whole  manner  of  thinking,  as  naturally 
as  that  works  upon  everyone  who  does  not  live  outside  of  his 


396  Judaism  and  Its  History 

time,  just  as  little  can  it  be  proved  in  the  external  manner  as 
you  attempt  it,  and  just  so  much  are  you  mistaken  in  your 
endeavor  to  divest  me  of  my  borrowed  ornamentation. 
Thus,  the  newer  Jewish  literature  has  not  waited  with  the 
definition  of  the  conception  of  its  tradition  for  Moehler; 
thirty  years  ago  it  has  designated  it  as  the  fitting  expression 
for  the  uninterrupted  development  and  its  justification. 
That  conception  has  become  the  common  property  of  the 
whole  recent  Jewry,  even  of  that  portion  calling  itself  con- 
servative. You  deny  the  truth  of  that  conception,  you  call 
Moehler's  Catholicism  "idealized,  showily  decked  out  with 
ideas  and  moments  of  the  consciousness  of  modern  times.'* 
— ^That  you  may  fight  out  with  Catholicism.  Judaism  has 
at  all  times  preserved  its  liberty,  its  unchecked  mental  move- 
ment is  therefore  expressed  in  its  whole  formation.  It  is 
therefore  perfectly  immaterial  whether  what  I  say  about  the 
relation  and  tradition  might  be  inserted  verbally  into  Moeh- 
ler's apology;  it  has  grown  on  Jewish  soil.  If  my  definition 
of  tradition  can  be  applied  in  any  manner  to  Catholicism,  it 
is  only  natural,  because  it  contains  the  conception  the  same 
as  Judaism,  but  it  has  naturally  shaped  itself  in  the  latter, 
it  can  not  be  said  to  have  been  borrowed  of  Moehler.  The 
"Protestant  ideas  and  moments  of  the  consciousness  of 
modern  time"  with  which  it  is  said  to  be  patched  up,  belong 
again  to  that  favored  side-by-side  position  of  contradictions 
which  is  so  much  less  justifiable  in  the  case  because  Protes- 
tantism rejects  tradition. 

If  you  find  in  the  religio-philosophical  views,  echoes  of 
Schleiermacher  and  Hegel,  you  sufficiently  admit  by  the  mere 
joining  of  those  two  diverging  tendencies — which  with  you 
has  become  second  nature — that  I  must  have  formed  my 
views  independently.  But  as  little  as  I  hesitate  to  confess 
that  I  have  listened  to  the  words  of  those  masters  and  that, 
without  surrendering  to  them,  I  gladly  accept  from  them 
what  I  find  correct  thought,  yet  they  are  violently  pulled  in 
at  my  touch  upon  the  philosophy  of  religion.  The  problems 
I  treat  of  belong  to  thousands  of  years,  Judaism  has  accom- 
plished their  solution  in  a  very  definite  manner,  the  mounting 


Strauss  397 

of  those  thoughts  is  modified,  the  influence  of  the  progressing 
mental  development  upon  it  is  bound  to  show.  And  yet,  even 
the  mounting  is  found  in  the  works  of  the  earlier,  unprejudiced 
minds  only  in  different  shape,  sometimes  not  as  clear  and 
sharply  defined,  and  then  again  with  surprising  clearness  and 
brightest  illumination.  He  that  knows  the  works  of  the 
ancient  Jewish  philosophers  is  often  surprised  at  the  agreement 
in  the  conceptions  down  to  the  particular  elaboration  and 
presentation,  even  if  in  the  expressions  of  their  time. — Yes, 
you  are  out-and-out  reminded  of  Strauss,  and  to  clearly  prove 
the  borrowing  of  the  thought  down  to  the  very  expression, 
you  attribute  the  following  words  to  me:  "The  idea  does  not 
pour  its  contents  upon  individuals,  but  upon  the  totality." 
Well,  that  is  the  famous  saying  of  Strauss  in  full,  which  was 
to  dethrone  the  single  God-Man,  in  order  to  put  the  entire 
God-Humanity  into  his  place.  And  so  I  should  of  course 
be  caught  with  the  goods  on  me — if  I  had  said  that  or  some- 
thing like  it.  But  thought  and  expression  were  far  from  me. 
I  did  not  and  do  not  dispute  the  height  of  the  individuals, 
consequently  not  that  of  the  individual  prophets,  but  simply 
emphasized  that  they,  like  other  great  men  of  genuis,  whose 
sublimity  I  do  not  attempt  to  drag  down,  arise  only  in  a 
nation  which  likewise  has  that  even  if  latent  undeveloped 
disposition,  that  they  are  the  center  and  focus  of  a  widely 
spread  mental  hearth.  That  thought  lays  no  claim  to 
originality,  even  if  its  strong  emphasis  on  the  particular  sub- 
ject should  not  find  approval  everywhere.  But  it  does  not 
touch  the  meaning  of  Strauss  at  all,  just  as  Judaism  has  no 
occasion  for  any  dispute  like  that  made  by  Strauss.  That  the 
fullness  of  divine  life  is  not  poured  into  one  individual,  that 
even  "Moses  and  Aaron  died  on  account  of  their  own  sins" 
is  something  so  well  admitted  in  Judaism  that  it  would  be 
ridiculous  to  go  a-begging  at  Strauss'  for  that  idea. 

Christianity  is  so  intergrown  with  that  theory  which 
Strauss  disputed,  that  just  that  sentence  pressed  out  the  most 
violent  screaming,  so  that  Strauss  for  awhile  felt  like  beating 
a  retreat  on  that  point,  instituted  the  "Cult  of  Genius"  and 
had  the  air  of  placing  genius  so  high  that  it  stands  only  and 


398  Judaism  and  Its  History 

alone,  unattainable,  as  if  elevated  above  all  influences  of  its 
time  and  nation.  That  is  it  which  forced  him  against  his 
will  in  his  new  presentation:  "For  the  People"  to  detach 
special  matters  from  the  totality  of  history  and  to  stamp 
them  as  eternal,  incomparable  deeds.  About  that  remainder 
of  an  even  very  much  weakened  apologetic,  I  have  not  failed 
to  express  my  doubts.  You  as  well  as  your  *'Allgemeiner 
Friend"  have  honored  my  verdict  upon  Renan  and  Strauss 
with  great  praises  and  it  is  astonishing  if  "such  a  logical, 
trenchant  critic,"  a  man  who  "in  few  sentences,  so  sharp  and 
fitting" — of  course,  "with  sharp,  Jewish  sense,"  you  say, 
which  I  accept  with  thanks  while  others  may  refuse  it  at  their 
pleasure — has  "scored  up"  two  such  important  works  and  is 
then  again  in  other  parts  treated  in  a  degrading  manner  with 
proud  superiority.  In  fact,  that  praise  arises  from  a  peculiar 
position;  it  is,  as  the  Talmudists  say  of  Harbona,  not  the 
product  of  love  of  Mordecai,  but  of  hate  of  Haman.  You 
have  real,  malicious  joy  at  seeing  those  acute  critics  shown 
up  in  certain  points  as  apologists,  which  is  a  just  reproach  to 
them,  as  you  admit  from  your  point  of  view.  But  when  I 
enter  into  that  weakly  apologetic  remainder,  when  I  especially 
reduce  the  estimation  of  "the  rich  collection  of  sentences  or 
maxims"  to  their  proper  modest  measure,  the  "Allgemeine" 
is  quickly  ready  with  the  verdict  that  my  criticism  "shows 
less  of  integrity  than  of  hypercritical  subtlety."  You  yourself 
quote  that  verdict  of  your  "Allgemeine  friend"  with  pleasure, 
yet  pass  by  this  " hypercritically  subtle"  dissection  of  mine 
very  quickly.  You  say  only  one  thing:  "Those  synoptic 
parallel  passages  of  the  new  patch  on  the  old  garment  must 
undergo  a  rigorous  examination,  the  result  of  which  consists 
only  in  that,  what  has  been  known  long  ago,  every  parable 
limps."  How  queer!  About  every  sentence  and  every 
parable,  innumerable  long  dissertations  have  been  written, 
which  treat  of  every  sentence  and  every  word,  of  every 
relation  and  every  possible  application  with  the  greatest  cir- 
cumstantiality, and  now  my  short  discussions,  because  they 
are  incommodious  to  you,  are  to  be  all  at  once  hypercritically 
subtle,  are  to  put  up  for  the  poor  children  of  thought  an 


Parables.  Herder  399 

unjustifiable,  rigorous  examination,  because  they  do  not 
glorify?  But  it  has  no  other  result  than,  etc.,  etc.  Is  that 
true?  I  prove  that  the  whole  sentence  with  its  comparison 
*'is  very  loosely,  even  contradictorily  attached  to  the  pre- 
ceding reply,"  that  it  occupies  a  very  different  and  later 
attained  point  of  view,  and  that  it  therefore  "does  not  belong 
to  Jesus  at  all."  All  that  you  are  silent  about  with  innocent 
air!  If,  as  it  seems,  you  know  of  nothing  to  say  against  it, 
you  have  no  right  to  shrug  your  shoulders  in  pity.  Yet,  you 
pretend  that  the  whole  result  consists  in  the  proof  that  every 
parable  limps.  Have  you  well  considered  what  you  express 
by  that?  An  admission  as  great  as  I  can  possibly  demand. 
Those  are  comparisons  and  parables,  perhaps  no  worse,  yet 
no  better,  than  hundreds  of  others,  in  no  case  "imperishable 
sayings,  for  in  them  truths  that  are  every  day  getting  fresh 
corroboration,  are  put  into  a  form  that  plainly  fits  them  and 
is  at  the  same  time  universally  intelligible."  I  disputed  that, 
and  proved  how  such  claim  and  all  pretension  founded  on  it 
are  unjustifiable;  you  admit  it,  and  say:  "Well,  the  parables 
are  limping,  as  they  all  do.^^  By  what  right  do  you  then 
adopt  the  words  of  your  "Allgemeine?"  Yet  do  not  believe 
that  I  assert  not  to  have  learned  anything  from  all  recent 
labors,  whether  done  by  Christians  or  Jews,  and  especially 
not  to  have  received  anything  from  Strauss.  I  acknowledge 
every  instruction  thankfully,  and  Strauss,  as  well  as  the  mental 
current  of  which  he  was  and  is  the  expression,  has  certainly 
had  its  eft^ect  on  me.  As  there  are  defects  clinging  also  to 
favored  minds,  as  I  believe,  I  assert  that  in  opposition  to 
one-sided  conception  the  other  view  should  be  shown  for 
correction.  With  this,  my  respect  for  the  great  carriers  of 
culture  remains,  I  gladly  accept  their  mental  impulse.  Yet 
in  that  external  manner  where  you  look  for  the  effect,  it  is 
not  to  be  found. 

It  is  yet  worse  with  being  reminded  of  Herder,  Herder's 
flashes  of  mind  have  illuminated  us  all,  even  if  we  have  always 
to  be  on  guard  against  being  wrapped  into  the  often  quickly 
succeeding  darkness.  He  would  undertake  a  meritorious 
work,  who  succeeds  in  fixing  such  a  bright    moment  and 


400  Judaism  and  Its  History 

would  elaborate  the  thought  often  thrown  out  by  Herder, 
loosely,  without  further  connection.  The  idea  which  you 
quote  here,  following  your  *'Allgemeine"  has  so  little  kinship 
with  my  consideration  of  history,  that  in  this  connection  it 
has  only  now  become  known  to  me  through  both  of  you. 
Therefore,  I  simply  keep  to  your  quotation.  Judaism, 
Herder  says — according  to  you — contained  in  a  too  narrow 
vessel  a  great  idea  which  had  to  burst  the  same,  in  order  to 
be  able  to  reveal  itself  in  its  fullness,  and  so  should  be  added, 
that  happened  by  Christianity.  As  far  as  that  figure  is 
applicable,  it  suffers  from  a  certain  obliquity  which  produces 
a  squint.  The  idea  forms  its  vessel,  its  carriers;  it  transforms 
them  according  to  the  needs  of  its  growth;  the  hulls  which 
were  formerly  fitting,  grow  with  it,  become  looser,  and  shape 
themselves  otherwise  according  to  the  inner  ideal  require- 
ments. Vessel  and  idea  are  not  in  opposition,  they  are 
correlates  that  bear  the  fate  of  mutability  together.  The 
vessel  breaks  only  when  the  idea  has  finished  its  life.  As 
long  as  the  latter  retains  its  vitality,  the  former  is  also  pre- 
served, only  that  it  has  to  go  with  the  other  through  the 
entire  process  of  formation.  When  Hellenism  had  exhausted 
itself,  the  nation  of  the  Greeks  collapsed;  when  the  national 
energy  of  the  Jews  lost  its  vitality,  the  Jewish  state  ceased, 
but  therewith  Judaism  did  not  collapse,  but  it  kept  on  forming 
its  vessel  according  to  requirement. 

The  great  chasm  that  separates  us  is  not  in  that  wherein 
I  agree  as  alleged,  with  the  sentence  of  Herder  quoted  by 
you,  but  in  that  wherein  I  differ  with  him.  You  and  your 
colleagues  have  to  admit  on  the  one  side  that  the  complete, 
pure  idea  of  religion  was  alive  in  Judaism,  even  if  it  neces- 
sarily appeared  in  the  form  conditioned  by  the  time,  and  yet, 
on  the  other  side,  you  would  like  to  save  for  Christianity 
something  new,  something  hardly  guessed  at  before,  and  you 
can  not  do  so  in  any  other  way  than  by  again  placing  Judaism 
low  down,  not  only  in  the  temporal  expression  of  its  appear- 
ance but  also  in  its  essence  and  its  deepest  sentiment.  In 
that  I  find  contradiction  and  injustice.  You  do  not  see  with 
materialism  in  the  corporeal  appearance,  in  the  momentary 


Development  401 

stage  of  the  individual  man,  the  complete  exhaustion  of  his 
being,  you  recognize  that  rather  in  the  living,  overtowering 
spirit  which  impels  him  to  higher  development.  Neither  do 
you  find  in  the  past  of  Christianity,  nor  even  in  its  present, 
the  full  formation  of  its  soul,  you  rather  assert  a  deeper 
endeavor  and  its  further  formation  from  within  to  be  hoped 
for  and  you  represent  many  a  temporal  expression  thereof  as 
malformation  not  chargeable  to  it;  you  separate  ideas  from 
appearance  with  all  decision.  But  you  stand  up  against 
Judaism  with  flat  sobriety  and  assert  that  it,  which  pro- 
nounced its  idea  from  the  very  beginning  so  often  with  such 
decided  emphasis,  with  such  unclouded  clearness,  is  so 
imprisoned  in  the  individual,  temporal,  limited  expressions 
that  it  cannot  free  itself  from  them,  you  shut  your  eyes 
before  the  profundity  and  the  compass  of  its  spirit,  and  would 
represent  that  also  as  narrowminded.  That  is  the  contra- 
diction which  clings  to  the  entire  confessional  narrow  theology. 

You  think:  "Serious  Christian  science  will,  in  view  of 
so  many  labors  to  throw  light  upon  the  genesis  of  the  Hebrew 
conception  of  God,  only  smilingly  shake  its  head,  if  right  here 
in  the  second  lecture,  that  conception  of  God  drops  in  finished, 
without  all  traces  of  national  limitation,  without  any  anthro- 
pomorphic gift  at  its  birth."  I  do  not  begrudge  to  the 
seriousness  of  Christian  science  that  smiling,  I  grant  to  it  that 
knowing  shaking  of  the  head,  but  if  you  would  know  my 
"Urschrlft"*  and  my  other  labors  not  simply  by  their  name, 
but  according  to  their  actual  contents,  you  might  have  even 
caught  me  in  a  flagrant  contradiction,  as  I  have  uncovered 
those  temporal  expressions  and  the  endeavors  of  later  times 
to  cover  up  and  blur  those  expressions  leading  to  error,  more 
than  any  earlier  author.  Of  course,  then  you  could  no  longer 
have  smiled  and  shaken  your  head  with  "Christian  serious- 
ness" at  my  "Jewish  learning."  You  would  rather  be 
obliged  to  acknowledge  that  I  do  not  clear  the  Jewish  holy 
scriptures  of  national  and  anthropomorphic  presentation  of 
even  the  conception  of  God,  just  as  no  human  expression  can 
at  any  time  rise  above  it,  just  as  it  appears  in  naive  times 

*  Urschrift  &  Ubersetzungen  der  Bibel.  Geiger.  Breslau  1857. 


402  Judaism  and  Its  History 

with  the  most  natural  harmlessness,  but  that  yet  the  truth 
in  its  inmost  profundity  shines  through  the  defective  expres- 
sion, that  the  clearest  light  breaks  through  the  slight  clouding 
and  even  gilds  it.  God  is  one,  without  form,  is  lord  of  heaven 
and  earth,  is  ruler  of  all  fates — that  is  the  conception  pro- 
claimed loud  and  unambiguous,  even  if  it  may  be  pronounced 
in  the  most  childlike  expression.  What  you  say  of  the 
*'many  labors  to  throw  light  upon  the  genesis  of  the  Hebrew 
conception  of  God"  is  but  phrase.  That  conception  of  God 
has  its  sole  genesis  in  the  secret  depth  of  the  Jewish  spirit 
and  it  is  present  as  soon  as  that  finds  its  expression,  it  is 
undisputed  in  its  entire  literature,  that  mouthpiece  of  a 
nation,  it  comes  out  "finished,"  if  you  so  desire,  from 
that  place  of  its  birth,  like  the  child,  even  if  it  does 
grow  up  to  manhood,  it  has  not  put  itself  together  out  of 
component  parts,  blown  together  from  the  most  various  points. 
You  may  call  that  "dropped  in."  I  know  of  no  genesis,  God 
Himself  is  its  father  and  Israel  its  mother,  and  you  can  not 
find  for  its  parents,  nor  even  nurses,  wheresoever  you  may 
look  for  them.  It  has  had  its  history  and  has  it  yet  farther 
on,  but  it  is  independent  according  to  its  inmost  essence, 
always  accepted  for  its  development  only  what  was  homo- 
geneous to  that  essence  and  what  could  not  grow  into  it  as 
foreign  substance,  it  owes  at  most  the  stimulation  to  more 
rapid  growth  to  external  impulses.  Neither  is  there  any 
occasion  for  you  to  smile,  if  all  Parseean  influence  upon  Jewish 
consciousness  is  denied.  Whatever  opposed  Jewish  basic 
disposition  in  Parseeism  was  decisively  rejected  with  the 
clearest  feeling  of  the  opposition,  and  what  agreed  with  the 
former,  was  as  modification  of  its  own  not  kept  out,  just  as  it 
happened  later  with  Hellenism  and  Islam.  Even  the  Parseean 
doctrine  of  the  resurrection  of  the  body  could  intrude  only  as 
a  complement  of  national  longing,  first  as  party  shibboleth, 
then  as  general  comfort  during  national  distress,  and  with 
the  existence  of  that  as  with  the  whole  national  tendency, 
it  stands  and  falls. 

" It  is  something  entirely  new  to  you"  if  you  read:     "The 
idea  of  Judaism  is  one  embracing  all  mankind,  but  it  needs 


Jewish  Idea  of  God  403 

at  first  an  individual  people  for  introduction  into  life," 
"something  entirely  neWf  the  consciousness  to  encompass 
mankind  and  to  labor  for  it"  forms  the  real  germ  of  the  Jewish 
spirit  which  we,  poorly  informed,  have  thus  far  held  to  be 
the  expression  of  the  toughest  and  most  rigid  particularism 
and  of  unconquerable  narrowmindedness."  You  were  really 
poorly  informed,  if  that  is  something  entirely  new  to  you,  if 
you  do  not  know  one  word  of  all  biblical  passages  that  an- 
nounce it,  from  the  account  of  the  creation  of  man  in  the 
image  of  God,  from  the  promise  to  Abraham  that  in  him  and 
in  his  seed  all  nations  of  the  earth  should  be  blessed,  to  the 
announcement  by  all  prophets,  how  all  the  world  would  be 
united  in  knowledge  of  God  and  peace,  down  to  the  sayings 
of  all  later  teachers  who  under  the  heaviest  pressure  did  not 
part  with  that  spirit  nor  lose  that  consciousness.  Yes,  the 
Jewish  spirit  is  tough,  it  does  not  bend  nor  break;  rigid  and 
particularistic  it  was  made  only  by  the  peculiar  opposition. 
Why  is  there  such  a  great  fight  made  by  the  other  side,  when 
it  is  divesting  itself  of  that  particularism  forced  upon  it? 
You  are  greatly  incensed  if  I  say  of  animal  sacrifice,  that  it 
"had  not  sprouted  from  the  root  of  Judaism,"  that  it  "had 
been  tolerated,  and  only  tolerated;"  you  think,  "ordinarily 
the  difference  and  prominence  of  Judaism  over  paganism  is 
placed  in  this,  that  its  sacrificial  service  had  originated  from 
a  more  deeply  conceived  need  of  expiation  and  reconciliation 
than  the  pagan  one,"  with  that,  you  opine,  I  "might  be 
satisfied."  It  is  just  that,  that  I  am  not  satisfied  with  the 
crumbs  thrown  to  us  from  the  table  of  Christian  theology, 
that  I  investigate  Judaism,  not  from  the  New  Testament,  but 
from  its  own  sources,  and  if  I  have  therein  prophets  and  poets 
of  psalms  pronounce  a  unanimous  verdict  of  rejection  against 
sacrificial  service,  if  I  observe  its  complete  crowding  out  in 
later  history,  if  I  see  that  many  thinking  leaders  do  not  dive 
into  petty  sacrificial  symbolics,  but  step  higher  above  the 
whole  conception  of  sacrifice,  then  I  know  that  the  ancient 
sacrificial  service  was  but  tolerated.  If  you  reply  to  me  on 
that  point  as  well  as  in  regard  to  the  "law"  lugged  into  the 
dispute  by  you  and  the  "Allgemeine,"  that  I  can  not  hide  to 


404  Judaism  and  Its  History 

myself,  that  in  the  documents  of  the  Old  Testament  sacrificial 
service  and  priesthood  are  very  often  and  for  only  tolerated 
matters,  much  too  often  spoken  of,  your  side  is  keeping  with 
improper  preference  to  the  Pentateuch,  about  the  origin  and 
final  completing  of  which  criticism  is  as  yet  very  defectively 
informed.  I  have  not  hesitated  to  enter  that  difficult  field 
in  learned  works  and  shall  try  to  further  my  contributions. 
But  where  one  should  appear  with  sure  results,  the  unfinished 
must  remain  in  the  background.  Here  only  this  much! 
The  "law"  is  frequently  a  product  of  fights  and  compromises 
with  the  external  conditions,  and  those  drag  along  through 
the  entire  history  of  Judaism  from  its  origin  down  to  the 
present ;  yet  its  inmost  energy  arises  always  anew  and  pierces 
even  the  bars  of  the  compromise.  The  most  instructive 
example  is  furnished  by  the  very  history  of  priesthood  in 
Israel,  an  institution  without  which  mankind  does  not  believe 
to  be  able  to  get  along,  which  also  in  Judaism  made  efforts 
to  adapt  itself  to  all  formations  and  to  rule  them  thereby,  and 
yet  had  to  fall  because  in  opposition  to  its  essence.  Yes, 
"the  traits  of  dissatisfaction  with  priesthood,  which  are  com- 
municated to  us  are,"  as  I  say,  "nothing  isolated;"  and  if 
you  point  to  Numbers  16  and  17,  to  represent  "what  the 
relation  of  the  Jewish  spirit  is  to  such  traits  of  dissatisfaction," 
you  mistake  the  condition  of  the  individual  event  that  is 
related  for  the  Jewish  spirit.  In  the  same  way,  if  you  say 
later,  with  fine  irony,  "If  David  has  the  enemies  of  God's 
people  sawed  to  pieces  and  baked  in  furnaces,  it  may  be 
comprehended  by  the  economy  of  the  materializing  idea,  and 
if  a  curse  is  uttered  against  the  Babylonian  mothers  (?)  that 
their  children  may  be  dashed  against  the  stones,  that  is  a 
wise  accommodation  because  the  idea  must  not  at  once 
appear  too  ideal,  if  it  is  to  find  admission."  What  does  the 
outburst  of  wrath  of  the  individual  concern  me,  even  if  his 
name  be  David,  or  even  if  he  be  a  poet  whose  song,  pressed 
out  of  him  by  deepest  woe,  has  been  received  into  the  book 
of  psalms?  That  belongs  to  the  essential  differences  between 
Judaism  and  Christianity,  that  the  former  is  not  founded  upon 
a  personality,  but  carries  its  base  within  itself.     "Doubtless 


Personalities  405 

thou  art  our  Father,"  says  the  prophet,  (Isai.  63:16)  "though 
Abraham  be  ignorant  of  us,  and  Israel  acknowledge  us  not: 
thou  O  Lord,  art  our  Father,  our  Redeemer  is  thy  name  from 
everlasting."  With  the  finally  achieved  preponderance  of 
Judah,  David,  as  founder  of  the  Jewish  dynasty,  was  highly 
extolled,  and  yet,  the  traits  from  the  old  accounts,  which  in 
part  proceeded  from  the  opposition,  have  not  been  wholly 
obliterated  from  his  history.  That  is  a  question  of  historic 
criticism.  In  spite  of  many  confessed  defects,  he  and  Solomon 
were  ideally  glorified,  David  himself  (as  it  reads  in  Ezechiel) 
or  "a  son  of  David,"  as  he  was  named  in  popular  imagination, 
was  again  to  become  the  savior,  the  hero  of  the  glorification. 
Take  no  interest  in  the  "son  of  David,"  divest  David  him- 
self of  his  ornamentation,  do  just  as  you  please.  Only  in  the 
interest  of  historic  truth,  a  protest  might  appear  from  my  side 
against  an  unfair  verdict,  never  in  the  interest  of  Judaism 
which  has  not  represented  him  or  his  son  as  a  sinless  saint. 
This  is  and  remains  the  kernel  of  the  difference  between 
us.  We  do  not  base  our  truth  upon  persons  and  do  not  limit 
it  to  determined  times;  you  and  your  colleagues  tie  it  to  a 
single  personality  which  you  elevate  to  the  accomplished  ideal 
and  make  superhuman  and  close  with  his  time  as  the  time 
of  the  realization  of  the  ideal.  By  that  you  put  yourself  into 
contradiction  to  history  and  yet  would  like  to  let  history 
testify  for  itself.  You  would  like  to  make  believe  that  you 
alone  had  remained  standing  on  the  plan  of  the  world's 
history,  you  can  not  help  getting  angry  if  Judaism  also  makes 
claim  of  not  yet  being  dead  as  a  factor  in  the  world's  history. 
Then  a  remnant  of  those  old  faded  phrases  of  Jew  hatred 
comes  shuffling  along.  On  such  a  road  I  do  not  follow  you. 
I  am  doing  enough  if  I  copy  your  sentences  which  you  again 
clamp  to  the  " Allgemeine :"  "Tough  Judaism,  indeed, 
struggles  and  twists  through  all  sorts  of  obstacles,  and  where 
a  new  culture  is  produced,  it  grapples  on,  to  work  it  up." 
(What  an  outrage!)  "But  that  it  will  find  a  new  home  any- 
where" (who  could  join  a  clear  thought  to  this?)  "and  enter 
in  really  productive  manner  into  the  course  of  the  mental 
development  of  mankind  and  become  merged  with  it"  (that 


406  Judaism  and  Its  History 

it  does  not  do  you  the  small  favor  of  perishing!)  "that  nobody 
will  hardly  be  able  to  assert  in  general."  (Why  screwed 
down  so  carefully?) 

But  for  what  purpose  should  those  phrases  be  quoted 
farther?  It  is  useless  to  enter  into  dispute  about  them. 
Fleeting  time  calls  for  better  use,  There  are  still  enough  of 
scientific  problems  that  claim  the  force  of  every  honestly 
striving  person.  I  shall  always  be  glad  to  meet  others,  you 
too,  on  that  road;  but  that  superior  looking  down  upon  the 
Jew  journeying  alongside  does  not  make  the  least  impression 
upon  me,  perhaps  may  only  make  me  smile  at  the  vain 
pride.  It  is  better  if  we  move  along  together  in  mutual 
esteem ! 

Frankfort  on  the  Main,  May  ii,  186$ ^ 


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